Tom was looking straight into her eyes, and she looked away, punching her straw in her drink. Something about him excited her, but she didn't know what it was. He looked at her as though he really wanted her to have that car. She knew her face must be red. (49)
When they were a block from the house, Emmett said suddenly, "He had a map of Vietnam in the den, and his wife tore it down because it didn't fit her decorating scheme. It sounds crazy, but I think he'd rather be back in Nam." (50)
"Don't fret too much about this Vietnam thing, Sam. You shouldn't feel bad about any of it. It had nothing to do with you." (57)
"The money's not the point, Emmett. We need to be heard so it won't happen again. We want to let everybody know vets are not losers. You know whatr I'd like to see? I'd like to see a big welcome-home party downtown. Lots of places had one the year they put the monument up in Washington. But nobody did a thing here." (59)
"My mothers acts like the Vietnam War was back in the Dark Ages."
"It was the Dark Ages, Sam," said Anita. "That's a good description." (64)
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| The Vietnam Memorial |
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| Larry Wayne Chaffin, 19, photographed 1965. He died in 1985, age 39, possibly from exposure to Agent Orange. |
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| US Marines, Mutter's Ridge, Nui Cay Tri, South Vietnam, October 1966. |
Pick one of the following questions to answer:
2a. What do you think of the veterans we meet at McDonalds? What particularly strikes you about them?
2b. Some of you have been critical of Irene. Now we have met her, what do you think of her? Do you feel critical of her? Do you understand her choices?
2c. We meet another woman, one who Sam truly admires—Anita Stevens, Emmett's former girlfriend. What do you think of her? She seems like one who could easily leave Hopewell, but she chooses to stay. Does that make sense to you?
Everyone: do 3 and 4.
3. Look at one of the pictures posted above. Your reaction to it? What do you think (and/or feel) looking at it?
4. Without looking at anything on line, or talking to anyone, when you think of the Iraq and/or Afghanistan War(s), what do you think? What image comes to your mind first—and why?
Finally:
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| Vietnam veterans |
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| Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) before they were arrested in Senator John McCain's office, 2017 |
I think a lot of her fascination with the war is due to the fact that she knows nothing about it. A huge part of getting older is beginning to become curious about things, especially those things that nobody will talk about. Nobody talks about her father, the war, Agent Orange, the relationship between Anita and Emmett, etc, because it is too difficult. But part of growing up is believing you can do the invincible. Also, I think younger people, specifically children, are able to see the subtleties of the world easier than adults, as the world is still new to us. As people become adults, they accept the “rules of the world” and fall in-step, so I think it’s important that Sam is bordering between a child and an adult. She can consciously choose to fall in-step or to question.
ReplyDelete(2c) Anita is the woman who is “different” in Hopewell. I think that at first glance, she appears to be the woman who is not (anymore) tied down by a husband, who no longer follows the typical path of a woman in Hopewell (marrying, having children, and staying home.) However, Anita is still tethered to her father, who needs her help. Every woman in this book is tethered to Hopewell by a male figure, either a father, husband, uncle, brother, etc. Only when Dwayne dies does Irene become “free,” which we have not seen with the other women. Even Mamaw has never been anywhere else.
The picture of the two US marines carrying the injured marine has stuck with me. The marine on the left reminds me very much of the marine in the clip from Full Metal Jacket (in a previous blog.) The drill sergeant names the marine Private “Joker” and then forces him to show him his mean “war” face. Private Joker and his scream and facial expression look just like that of the marine in the image. Apparently boot camp works.
I honestly don’t know enough about the Iraq or Afghanistan War(s) for much to come to mind. All I think is that it was a waste. (This is when one of the Bush’s said someone had nukes but they really didn’t, right?)
1. I think that Sam’s preoccupation with the war comes from her feeling a lost sense of self, especially when it comes to her father and the fact that his identity is inextricably tied to the war. As we have seen so far, Sam is on the edge of adulthood and still growing into her mature self, and in many ways this book is less about the war and more a coming of age story. In this way, the war and Sam’s father represent an undiscovered part of Sam’s past that will help her form and create her future identity.
ReplyDelete2. I do not agree with Irene’s choices, and I do not think that I would make the same decisions if I was in her situation, but I do think that her motives are understandable and a reasonable reaction. Irene wants so desperately to forget the war and her husband and all that was lost that she goes so far in her efforts to forget that she leaves behind the living — Emmett and Sam — as well. If I was in Irene’s place, I think that I would at least try to offer Sam some sort of explanation, but then again she might not have the words to adequately express herself. Sam understands that Emmet is unable to reflect on his experience in the war, “she knew very well that on TV, people always had the words to express their feelings, while in real life hardly anyone ever did”(45), and I think that this sentiment is applicable to Irene as well.
3. The picture of the 19 year old soldier particularly stood out to me. The thing that struck me most about the picture is of course how extremely young the boy looks, but second, how posed the entire photo seems. Everything from the way he stares into the camera, to his slight smile, to the “war is hell” quote written across his helmet seems very calculated and thought out, in complete contrast to the chaos and pain of other photo of the U.S. marines. Though perhaps that is the point of this image, perhaps it is supposed to evoke a completely different feeling of war.
4. When I think of the Iraq or Afghanistan wars, the first thing that comes to mind is listening to NPR with my dad. My dad listened to NPR all the time, especially when I was younger, and it was from the radio that I remember being exposed to words like the Taliban or Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, or Saddam Hussein in conjecture with Iraq. Though I was are of these events from an early age, these terms have no real images connected to them; I was too young to understand the conflict or what war really meant.
1. I think Sam’s preoccupation with the war is partially driven by the fact that that it is such a taboo topic in her family. It is clear that the war influences her life, she sees the VA running events, worries about Emmett, and meets Emmett’s friends from the war, but it is something that she is told to ignore, to pretend that it didn’t happen. Sam also has been established to be going through a bit of a rebellious phase, so it makes sense that she is driven to try and find out about the war, because it is so taboo.
ReplyDelete2C. I like Anita. So far, she has been incredibly friendly to Sam, and seems to care about Sam and her family. I don’t think that the reason Anita gives for staying, that she is staying to take care of her parents, is fully true. While that is definitely a factor in her decision to stay, I think she is also staying for various, unsaid, other reasons. We don’t know Anita well enough to know all those reasons, but I think that it is a fair guess that Emmett and Sam are contributing to her decision, too. She really cares about them, and I think that they are a part of the reason that she is staying in Hopewell.
3. When I first looked at the photo of the Vietnam Memorial, I didn’t really have much of a reaction. At first glance, it doesn’t look like much, but I also hadn’t noticed all of the names. Seeing that has made me realize the shocking amount of people who died in this war. There are maybe ten names in a single line, a couple hundred per panel, and it stretches on out of sight. It is sobering, and hard to grasp, the sheer number of people that died, and this photo really enforced that feeling for me.
4. The image that comes to mind first for me is of jeeps in a desert, and the photos of bombed out towns we see every once in a while. I think those are common thoughts to have, as they are the images shown on the news whenever the war is discussed. Our book of short stories has an image of a Jeep in the desert on its cover, they are images that are used to depict the war in modern culture.
Sam’s preoccupation with war comes from the fact that her life is so intertwined with the war. Because of having to care for Emmet and not having a dad, the war has profoundly affected her life. Since the war has shaped her life, she has a right to say “it has everything to do with me”(71) even if that claim is egotistical. As Sam is growing up she is discovering the ugly side of the war that was left out of Emmet’s stories when she was younger. Similar to Kovic, she starts to realize that she has been lied to or not told the full story of the war. She understands how the war has manifested in her life but as she gets older she wants to understand the root of the problem. This point is illustrated by the Agent Orange situation. Sam sees the symptoms of the war, the effect Agent Orange is having on Emmet, but no one will tell her or acknowledge the war that caused those symptoms. Her fascination with the war comes from her quest for the truth.
ReplyDeleteI understand why Irene chooses to move to the U.K. and abandon Emmet and Sam, but I think her choice was very irresponsible and selfish. Irene’s life in Hopewell was painful primarily due to the war which took her husband and changed her brother. She marries a plain man and starts a family with him in the U.K. because she wants a second chance. As Sam says, “she didn’t want to hear about the past”(57). Although Irene deserves a happy life, leaving her daughter to care for the burdens she ran away from is inexcusable.
The black and white portrait stood out to me because of the “war is hell” sentence written on his helmet. The contrast between that sentence and the stereotypical soldier illustrates how war is not at all like the propaganda. Without the “war is hell” the image could be propaganda because the man seems patriotic and is even smiling. After experiencing the reality of the war, his definition of war can only be summed up by saying it is hell. When I looked more closely at the image, I noticed that his helmet was sewn up and battered proving his statement that war is hell.
I honestly do not know much about these wars, so what I think is formed largely from what I have heard on the news which hardly ever seems to mention these wars. When I think of Iraq and Afghanistan, I think of a continuous war that seems to never end and am very confused by the wars. I do not have a particular image that comes to mind, but I do think of numbers and treaties. This is because when I hear about those wars, I hear how many people died and what treaties were formed then broken rather than individual people’s stories. If I had to come up with a general image of the wars, it would be about how many innocent people are affected and displaced as a result of the fighting.
In a sense, her preoccupations could be connected the the general curiosity of a teenager, or the feeling of wanting to know the truth. Sam’s life has ultimately been shaped by the war, even though she wasn’t physically in it. “It had everything to do with me. My daddy went over there to fight for Mom’s sake, and Emmett went over there for Mom’s sake and my sake, to get revenge… The ones who don't get killed come back with their lives messed up and then they make everybody miserable”(71). Through this quote, Sam refers to everyone. The war has not only affected her, but everyone she knows as well. From Irene to Emmett to her own father, the war has changed them, however Sam just doesn’t know how they changed. She wants to know who they were before the war. In doing so, she wants to know the truth and be treated like an adult who deserves to know the truth of war. “It bothered her that it was so hard to find out the truth”(70).
ReplyDelete2c. We meet another woman, one who Sam truly admires—Anita Stevens, Emmett's former girlfriend. What do you think of her? She seems like one who could easily leave Hopewell, but she chooses to stay. Does that make sense to you?
Ultimately, I really like Anita as a character. She seems to be a nice, caring, and supportive person, someone who will take care of Emmett and anyone she meets. I think it is part of her nature, her personality, to care for people, hence having her job to be a nurse. In this sense, it is not at all surprising that she stays in Hopewell. As she explains in the book, she feels responsible to look after her parents that raised her. “But my parents are here, and Daddy’s been real bad- he has a heart condition. It doesn’t seem right to walk out on them. I like it here O.K. People are good here, and it’s home” (63). Therefore, I think that choosing to stay makes perfect sense for her as a character, as it matches her personality greatly, almost expecting her to.
3. Look at one of the pictures posted above. Your reaction to it? What do you think (and/or feel) looking at it?
When looking at the picture of the Vietnam Memorial, it seems a bit intimidating. From the angle the mere size itself towers over you. However, when looking deeper, you realize that every single tiny line id the names of multiple people who have served and died in War. I says that the picture is intimidating in the fact that such a huge reminder of the loss of death is displayed largely. Even though the walls are so big, the lettering that represents each person is so small, displaying just how many lives we lost to the war.
4. Without looking at anything online, or talking to anyone, when you think of the Iraq and/or Afghanistan War(s), what do you think? What image comes to your mind first—and why?
The first image that comes to mind are the people fleeing from the war itself: the refugees. Part of me may think that because of the connection to my father, however, when doing immigration and refugee activism, it really teaches you to look at the people first. When thinking of war, I can imagine the dusted, destroyed, and hollowed streets, yet I can just imagine the people fleeing from their homes. I can imagine mothers with children huddled in tiny corners, children clutching onto their arms for support, and adults scrambling to collect their bare necessities for the future that is yet to come. I believe war itself puts people into the fight, flight, or freeze zone, and I first imagine the refugees that flee when any war is mentioned.
1. I think it really bothers Sam that she does not know anything about something that has impacted the people around her and the way she lives her life so much. She wants to know why Emmett is the way he is, she wants to know more about her father because her mother wouldn't even tell her the truth about where her name came from, she wants to know more about the impacts that the war had on other veterans in comparison to Emmett. She reads all these books in the library about Vietnam, trying to understand what it was like and how it looked. To her it seems that everyone knows something about Vietnam that she doesn't and it has affected everyone in different ways and she can't stand not knowing what it is! She wants to know what it was like because everyone that she admires or looks up to lived through it and it's almost like she feels left out because she was not alive to experience Vietnam.
ReplyDelete2. 2c. I really like Anita and in many ways I see a lot of similarities between Anita and Sam. Anita got married immediately when she was 18 not because it was something that she necessarily wanted to do, but because she didn't know what else to do. I feel like Sam is kind of in a similar position with her and Lonnie's relationship. Also, Anita's sister has been telling her to leave and come to Nashville for years, but just like how Sam gives up opportunities to go to college and live in Lexington but instead stays to take care of Emmett, Anita stays to take care of her father with the heart condition. It makes sense that she stays in Hopewell just like how it makes sense why Sam feels that she needs to stay in Hopewell as well.
3. Looking at the picture above of the names of soldiers who died in Vietnam is crazy. So far in this semester we have learned a lot about Vietnam and the controversy surrounding it and the horrors of Vietnam and it's crazy to look at how many lives were lost to war that a lot of people felt we shouldn't have been fighting and didn't win. Also, there are just so many names there. It's shocking how many people died.
4. I don't really know much about Iraq and/or Afghanistan to say really anything about them. I know they are were more recent and I remember being around like 9 years old or something and hearing about Iraq but I never really gave much thought to it and to be honest, still have never given much thought to Iraq or Afghanistan even now.
1. I believe that Sam wants to know about war because she wants a connection with her family, particularly her dad. She feels very distant from him, and I think she believes that if she learns about the war, it will bring them closer. When she looks at his picture, she thinks about how he "died with his secrets" (67). She wants to find these secrets out. She is also frustrated that no one will explain the war to her correctly. She sees how the war has affected her life and the lives of those she loves. If her childhood idea of the war in Vietnam is accurate, how could it have caused so much damage? I think Sam feels as though she is being “babied.” She wants to be more mature and feels like she is now grown up enough to be told the truth.
ReplyDelete2. When we first meet Pete and Tom, they seem, as Sam describes them, “goofy” (49). They joke around and flirt with her. Pete speaks openly about Agent Orange and seems to be comfortable talking about the war. During the breakfast, we don’t see the full effects that fighting in Vietnam had on the two men. However, we later learn that Pete once started shooting in his yard because had an “urge” and that Emmett believes Pete would “rather be back in Nam” (50). This was particularly striking to me because it shows how the trauma from being in war can seem almost nonexistent at first glance.
3. The picture of the injured man stood out to me. I could not stop looking at the background of the image. The sheer amount of dirt, mud, and sticks in the photo shows the awful conditions that soldiers in the Vietnam War had to face, and I am sure that they were especially detrimental for people who had injuries that could easily get infected (like the man in the photo).
3. I really don’t know too much about either of the wars, but I know the war in Afghanistan started as a result of 9/11. The image that comes to mind is of refugees fleeing these countries because I learned a little about the refugee crises in a Paideia short term class.
Sam is part of a generation that does not necessarily have to think about the war’s impact on people the same way her parents had to. There is no draft, and no one she knows is going to be sent off and likely die overseas. That being said, Vietnam has had a very obvious impact on the adults around her, so it doesn’t seem unreasonable that, as an intelligent teenager, she might be asking about what happened to them. After all, her uncle is clearly not entirely ordinary, and although she has no memory of her father, his absence definitely impacts Irene’s behavior. It is still part of her life and her history, for all that she was not personally in the war. She also has cause to be worried about Emmett. So far, he’s certainly not come across as a particularly able adult, and Sam takes care of him as much as he takes care of her. Perhaps she thinks understanding the war will help her understand Emmett better, and perhaps “cure” him. Moreover, there’s always the allure of the forbidden and the adult (i.e. Tom). The fact that Vietnam is an almost taboo topic in her house, combined with its rather obvious importance could only further motivate her to research Vietnam. It's something that all the adults in her life have to deal with, so she could be proving that she is able to deal with it as well, instead of being sheltered.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I’m still a bit critical of the fact that she leaves Sam to care for Emmett, it’s clear that Sam was the one who chose to stay, despite her mother’s entreaties otherwise, which makes me much more sympathetic to Irene. She does have her daughter’s best interests at heart, and wants her to have options beyond staying in [town]. After all, she is very insistent that Sam does not get pregnant and goes to University of Kansas for college. I think she might have been a lot like Sam when she was younger, where she wants more out of life than the traditional get-married-out-of-high-school path that seems to prevalent in this town. Although Sam does not want to leave, she definitely questions and seems to have a greater fascination with the outside world than, for example, Dawn. I would not be surprised if Irene knew she wanted to leave, but couldn’t because of her responsibilities as a widowed mother. In fact, her life was probably defined by her responsibilities to take care of her daughter and brother. It’s understandable that she might want the financial stability and fresh start of her Lexington family.
I’ve been to Washington DC and seen the Vietnam War Memorial before, but I was too young to really appreciate what it meant. The sheer density of the names on the monument in that picture is shocking to me. It’s one thing to know that there were many casualties in the Vietnam War, and another to recognize what that scale looks like in terms of individual names. Considering all that we’ve discussed on the trauma of war, and what it does to not only the people involved in fighting, but the families and communities they leave behind, it’s little wonder that it still has such huge impacts on the American landscape ten years after the war in In Country.
I think of 9/11, because I’m pretty sure that was the inciting incident that kicked off the war on terrorism that results in Iraq and Afghanistan under President Bush. I also think of the instability that US military action has caused in those areas. There may have been regimes of some kind (I’m not terribly clear on the details) in those countries before, but I’m not sure there has been a net positive impact for the people in those countries because of our intervention. Although terrorism does have a direct impact on the US in some ways, at the same time, it feels kind of imperialistic that we are going in and deposing dictators and such, only to leave just as big of a mess when we leave because there is no longer a stable government. Moreover, since terrorism is such an amorphous threat that isn’t tied to a specific nation, it makes me wonder just how much longer we will be at war with this justification. I also think of PTSD, because we read the book Thank You for Your Service in the NYT Bestseller short term class, and because much of our this generation's discussion of the treatment of veterans is centered around Afghanistan and Iraq.
DeletePrompt One: Sam wishes she could have grown up in the 60s as she listens to the new Beatles song. So many things have happened in so few years: Moon Landing, Beatles’ concerts, Vietnam war… These are the events about which Sam fondly reminisces. The older generation (like her mother) has tried to move on, though. Too many assassinations, Watergate, Vietnam war. There is a generational divide in their outlooks on the past decade. Sam’s mother has even called it “The dark ages,” a phrase that Anita (of the same age) agrees to, but Sam (different age doesn’t. Samis preoccupied with the war not only because it stole her father, but also because it completes a larger picture of the most wonderful time to be alive. Too bad no one wants to tell her about it!
ReplyDeletePrompt Two: The veterans at McDonald’s did interest me. Especially Pete, with the tattoo on his chest. He comments how having that permanent image plastered across his chest was the worst mistake of his life, that he can’t even see it in the mirror or when he looks down. Having been to Vietnam, having lived a good amount, I found his comment a little funny. This is the guy who would rather be in Vietnam than home and who goes outside to fire his gun (stress relief?). I almost feel as though he’s hiding something just like Emmett.
Prompt Three: Looking at the image of Larry Chaffin, I find it strange the inscription on his helmet. He’s dressed “war attire,” seems to be smiling, and yet broadcasts that “War is hell.” His eyes are also very well captured, as if saying ‘I know something you don’t,” but I can’t help but think to myself, “He doesn’t know when he’s going to die, but I do.”
Prompt Four: I guess we invaded Afghanistan after the September Eleventh attacks on the World Trade Centers. And maybe Iraq because they were “accumulating weapons of mass destruction.” Both those wars have been going on for a while. I remember watching an informational video on the war in Afghanistan when I was in public school. I don’t have images in my mind for either.
Sam barely know anything about her father; he is just some innocent looking boy in an old photograph to her. We see from the book that Sam did not know what her father would have done after the war if he lived, or that he gave Sam her name. The only tangible fact she knows about her father is that he fought and died in Vietnam, but nobody wants to talk about Vietnam. Her mother wants to leave her past behind her, Emmett is too messed up to talk about it, the vets seem too goofy and lighthearted to share, and the books seem to be lists of events and State Department Documents; Sam only has one connection to her father, and she is determined to strengthen it.
ReplyDeleteB: I both understand her motivations and choices, yet am critical of them. She seems to have felt robbed by her life with Dwayne; she wants to start over with a happier life and leave her struggles behind her. By leaving her struggles behind her, she left Emmet behind her, and by leaving Emmett behind, she left Sam behind too. I understand that she wanted to start over, but abandoning people who need her was not the correct choice. Emmet needed her. Sam needed her. She left them when they needed her the most.
Vietnam Memorial: I think the format of the memorial is very significant; rather than just a number of soldiers killed, the memorial shows the names of each man. The names humanize those who fought in the war; they are not just faceless meatheads who died in some far off land; they are human beings, just like the person reading the names. The photo didn’t show this in particular, but the wall looks very reflective. I would imagine that you could see your own face while you read the names of the dead soldiers. That is pretty powerful.
Iraq: vague images of deserts with American planes going overhead, bombing the shit out of vague enemies with American soldiers running behind and cleaning up (desert storm). Afghanistan: Honestly, I just think about the country on a map. Maybe an image of a mountain and a valley, but nothing concrete. I don’t know much about the war at all. I mostly know abstract facts about the conflict: it left a power vacuum that the Taliban took advantage of. That is mostly all.
1. I think that there is an innate part of her that is curious about her father. She has a desire to learn more about the man she never knew. She wants to know why he fought in Vietnam and what he experienced there. “He’s just a face in a picture, but now I’m getting real curious” (64). Irene does not talk to Sam about Dwayne because Irene barely knew Dwayne, herself. Sam wants to know more about Vietnam so she can know more about the man that died in it. “[The war] had everything to do with me. My daddy went over there to fight for Mom's sake, and Emmett went over there for Mom’s sake and my sake, to get revenge” (71). She wants to know what the war was all about. She wants to know why she had to lose her father to it.
ReplyDelete2. Both Tom and Pete, even though they know that Sam is Emmett’s young niece, flirt with her. Sam wants to see Pete’s tattoo that Emmett told her about, so she asks Pete if she can see it and he says, “‘You want me to show you right here?’ Pete asks flirtatiously” (48). I understand that this was the ‘80s, but I feel like it was never okay for a thirty-five-year-old man to flirt with an eighteen-year-old and then proceed to lift his shirt up. Emmett’s friend Tom does not seem as outright problematic. “Tom was looking straight into her eyes, and she looked away, punching her straw in her drink. Something about him excited her, but she didn't know what it was. He looked at her as though he really wanted her to have that car. She knew her face must be red” (49). While Tom intensely staring into her eyes is not ideal, I do not think that looking someone in the eyes merits the label of flirtation. It is Sam who feels something for Tom, we do not know if Tom actually feels something for Sam.
3. The photo of Larry Wayne Chaffin sticks out the most to me. The parts of the photo that I find the most striking are his beautiful, piercing eyes, his helmet which says “war is hell” on the brim, and his subtle smile. What makes the photo even more interesting, and sad to me is that he did not die in combat. He died from Agent Orange. He died from a disease imposed on him by his own country.
4. I think of soldiers wearing camo and walking around in their giant boots in the airport. I think of flight attendants announcing that “we have four soldiers on our flight today” and everyone clapping for them. When I think of the Afgan and Iraq war, I think of images I have seen from Syria. I think of images from destroyed buildings and families that have been broken apart. I also think of President Bush talking about weapons of mass destruction. I think of Trump and many others talking about getting our troops out of Afghanistan. I think of the negotiations held in Afghanistan that Trump stopped.
1. Clearly, Sam gains a lot of her fascination of war from her uncle and her father, but I also think that it is a very broad topic that she wants to reinforce her own thinking about. I think that her obsession with “agent orange” portrays this idea. Sam will not drop the notion that Emmett’s problems stem from his exposure to the chemical but seems to have no line of reasoning aside from the fact that he was in Vietnam. The more she researches the topic, the more she will reinforce her own beliefs and attempt to make sense of her life which has very little structure in it. It is the same for Vietnam; the more Sam learns, it feels like she can piece together her life just a little bit more.
ReplyDelete2c. I like Anita so far. She seems very genuine and caring, especially for Emmett. It seems as though she is the most educated character that we have met so far and not only because of schooling. Anita has life experience that adds to her knowledge. She has been divorced and understands Sam better than almost anyone else in my opinion. I think that it makes sense that she would stay in Hopewell. Her father is not doing well and she has a clear affection for Emmett, both of whom live close.
3. The final photo of the marines helping a wounded soldier is my favorite of the three. It shows the destruction of the war and the comradery of the soldiers. It looks to me as if any of these soldiers would die for one another. This image of the war is shocking because of the carnage in the background, but it still shows the key idea of brotherhood.
4. When I think of the Iraq and/or Afghanistan Wars, I think of Osama Bin Ladin and 9/11. I think of the US as taking the necessary actions to stop terrorism through bombing. I image lots of American Men and Women engaged in a valiant war to stop the global threat of terrorism.
1. The film was definitely hard to watch. The interviews themselves weren’t the hard part (though it was upsetting to learn about, as one vet put it, the worst days of their lives), but, as you said, the videos of the bombs going off or the photos of the dead and disemboweled soldiers that would appear on screen with little warning. I think the soldier that stuck out the most to me was Dawn Halfaker, specifically the part where she stops and, when asked what she is thinking about, wonders how she’ll pick up her future children with only one hand.
ReplyDelete2. It echoed the notions I had before watching the film. Many of the things that the soldiers said were very similar to the feelings we saw in Ron Kovic in Born in the Fourth of July. I feel like Kovic would have had a similar reaction to one of the soldiers if people started to celebrate his ‘alive day’, something along the lines of “why are we celebrating the worst day of my life?”
3. That is very difficult for me to understand. I don’t think that they want to go back for the reasons we saw in some of the short stories at the beginning of the year; the most prevalent one being that the soldiers, after having their mental health affected by combat, returning to war because they don’t feel comfortable in civilian life. I think these soldiers want to go back for the same reasons they went to war in the first place, to fight for the country and, as one of the vets put it, to ‘punish those who want to hurt the country’.
1) I think Sam is preoccupied with the war because it’s been kept from her for so long. She is (like most teenagers) incredibly curious, and Vietnam is clearly such an important part of her family that everyone is refusing to tell her about. I don’t blame her for constantly pursuing this seemingly dead-end. Her frantic search makes sense to me. There’s such a gaping hole in her life story, that everyone around her is refusing to help her fill it. Without knowing about her father, they’re depriving her of a piece of herself. I know that talking about Dwayne is difficult for everyone who knew him, but don’t think that keeping him from Sam is fair at all.
ReplyDelete2c) Part of me wishes Emmett and Anita were still together. She seems wonderful, and like she would be really good for him. She comes across as this incredibly grounding and calming figure, which would balance out perfectly with Emmett’s chaotic character. But at the same time, I’m not sure that would be good for her. Because of her aura of “I’ll take care of you”, she has too many people depending on her. I feel like she would do really well in big cities, like Sam was talking about. And I worry that she is settling for a town and for people who can’t give her what she deserves.
3) The picture of the war memorial has definitely been a difficult one to shake. I’ve seen this memorial in person, and it’s absolutely massive. It wraps around a sidewalk for what seems like forever, and there are thousands and thousands of tiny names engraved into its shiny surface. The first time I saw it, I was ten, and it wasn’t until halfway down the memorial (about where the two sides come together) that I fully realized what I was looking at. Each name I skimmed over, I realized, belonged to a person. An actual person, with a favorite color and foods that they hated and songs they only liked to listen to when they were alone. And some of these names had flowers. Some had letters taped to them. But some of them didn’t have anyone there to remember their favorite songs or the things they wouldn’t ever eat. And that about broke ten year old Claire.
4) I think about my uncle, who served in Afghanistan. I see him all the time, and yet I know absolutely nothing about him. I think his birthday is in June, but that’s about it. And that’s incredibly difficult for me to come to terms with. At first glance, he doesn’t strike me as someone who could have ever been in combat. He’s got an odd aura of innocence about him, where he doesn’t like saying curse words and talks to me like I’m a whole lot younger than I am, not in a condescending way, but like he’s trying to protect me from something. He’s incredibly overprotective of his kids (it always baffled me that he would strap them up with elbow and knee pads when we would go roller skating. It ruined all the fun, in my opinion). But taking this class and talking about the effects of war, all those things make perfect sense. Of course he’s overprotective, of course he shelters innocence. He probably misses his.