Blog#11: IC-RGV

Apart from a war novel, Bobbie Ann Mason's In Country can be viewed as an illustration of an outsider's attempt to understand the Vietnam War. The protagonist of the novel, Sam Hughes, is the daughter of a Vietnam veteran who died shortly before her birth. The manner in which Sam's life plays out is a direct consequence of her father's untimely death in the war. She lives in a small town in Kentucky with her uncle Emmett, a veteran of the same war, who struggles daily to cope with his experience and keep himself together. Sam's mother is mostly absent from her life; she lives in Lexington apart from her daughter. The protagonist reads her father's diaries, but she cannot understand his point of view. She also has trouble reasoning with Emmett's post-traumatic stress disorder to which she is constantly exposed. Due to her circumstances, Sam acquires a fascination for the Vietnam War in an attempt to understand veterans such as her father and uncle.

Despite her repeated efforts to comprehend the war and the ways in which it shaped the people around her, Sam is at a significant disadvantage because of the time and setting of the novel. The novel takes place approximately ten years after the end of the war and, thus, emphasizes the effects it had on not only the people directly involved but generations to come. Throughout In Country, the protagonist is passing through her late teenage years during the mid 80s in a small Kentucky town. First and foremost, Sam did not fight in the Vietnam War and, therefore, can never fully understand a Vietnam War veteran's perspective. Second, she was not old enough during the time of the war to retain knowledge of its effects on the American people. Lastly, Sam lives in a small town in the middle of the United States that, in many respects, is disconnected from the war more so than larger cities on the East Coast because of its lack of concentration on the war and services offered to its veterans.

The protagonist is also a teenage daughter of a dead American soldier rather than an actual soldier. The novel, therefore, deals more with the disconnect between the American citizen and the Vietnam veteran from the citizen's perspective. In this respect, her interest in the Vietnam War is uncommon and under appreciated because of its disparity from the average teenager girl's interests. Her fascination is also different from most other film and literature concerning the war in the sense that the American people are usually portrayed as not caring to understand the veteran. On the contrary, Sam longs for understanding of why Emmett and her father did the things they did and feel the way they feel.

There is an extensive amount of popular culture portrayed in Mason's novel because its presence illustrates the lasting effect the Vietnam War had on American culture. The fact that hugely famous artists such as Bruce Springsteen wrote and played songs in reference to the war show its significance and controversy. Although the war has been over for nearly ten years, the country had yet to physically or emotionally let go of its content and consequences. Emmett and Sam's frequent viewing of M*A*S*H conveys the idea that the American people thought that war was a concept that they needed to understand and expose themselves to in a sense.

The mention of popular culture in relation to the lives of Vietnam War veterans illustrates a method used by veterans to re-connect themselves with a part of their life that they cannot escape. Like Willard in Apocalypse Now, some veterans wish to return to the jungle where they can experience the rush of battle and danger. These veterans have trouble adjusting to life when they return home because they no longer receive the same emotions day in and day out; home life seems boring to them. Popular culture like the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, and M*A*S*H serves as a way for veterans to return to a time period in which they still feel as though they are stuck.