Blog 11 S.R

In the novel "In Country" by Bobbie Ann Mason its illustrates that its more than just a war story. This story doesnt focus on the horrible events that happens within a war. The book doesnt focus on the blood, the deaths, the gun shots keeping you up at night. This novel focus more on the family and friends of the men who are in the war. This gives the readers a different perspective since most war stories focus alot on the at the war. The main character or the protagonist of the story is Sam Hughes, the daughter of a soldier who was killed right before she was born in the summer of 1984. Sam spends alot of her time in Kentucky tryin to figure out the life of being in war my reading her fathers diaries and dealing with her uncles post tramtic stress disorders. Sams mother has been in and out of her life so her uncle is one of the few people that she has.

Sam trys to focus and comprehend the war but it becomes very difficult for her because the Novel starts the book ten years after the war end and at this time talk and concerns about the war is obviously dying out but will always be remember but its difficult to understand what really happend without actually being there during that time. Sam didnt fight in the war so of course she wouldnt fully understand it and even if she wasnt in the war, she wasnt old enough during the war to understand what was going on around her. She was just a baby when the war was starting to end. Sam also lives in a small town so the war is not as big as it would be in larger towns or states.

Sam and her uncle Emmett has an interesting relationship. The get closer throughout the book but she cant understand everything about him. She wonders why he sometimes drifts into his own space but it is something she learns how to deal with. They both learn things about themself and Emmit helps Sam learnn things about herself. Emmett and Sams grandmother go to D.C. to visit the Vietnam Veteran Memorial. This gave tribute to all the men and women that were lost in the war and just going through the memorial made them realize themselfs as people and question who they were and where they came from.

Its hard for Sam to connect to Emmit sometimes because they live or spent most of their time in two different worlds. Pop Culture plays a big role in Sams life. She is interested in the music and anything that has to do with the war. Emmett and Sam watch MASH together but they both look at it from different perspectives. Emmett responds to it better because he can relate to it on a personal level. Sam just looks at it as if it was the vietnam war.