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The author of Dien Cai Dau ,Yusef Komunyakaa, is an African American Vietnam veteran who tells his stories through his poetry. In Dien Cai Dau the reader sees many themes that were common throughout the Vietnam War such as racial issues, PTSD, a loss of innocence, and loved ones.
In the poem Sunset Threnody, the author is describing how one of the soldiers longs for his loved one and the memories left behind. Yusef shows the struggle that the soldier deals with in war as he misses a female companion. The soldier watches a young lady in a bar and it makes him think of his own girl that he left at home. The girl is a reminder to the soldier of a girl in his life and he says “How many faces are hers?" (51). This shows that many soldiers in the war that saw her probably put the face of their loved one on her and it made the memory seem more real. Many of the soldiers in the war were young men who did not have a chance to live out their lives with their girlfriends back home and they carried pictures of them and thought about going home to them. The idea of having someone to go home to and someone who loves you back home helped the soldiers in the war get through it and maintain the goal to stay alive and get home. The soldier does not approach the girl and says “I’m still there and halfway to her table where she sits holding the sun in her icy glass” (52). This quote is very symbolic. The soldier says he is halfway to her table meaning he is almost home and she holds the sun in her glass, which is the happiness of being home. Once the soldier reaches the girl, he will be home and happy.
The next theme that is apparent in the poetry is PTSD which can be seen in the poem Losses. Yusef writes about a veteran who is back from war and cannot fit back into society. The opening line of the poem is “After Nam he lost himself, not trusting his hands with loved ones” (61). This soldier went to war and was changed because of the horrific events and killing that he witnessed unfold in Vietnam. The soldier was changed in Vietnam and could not come back to society the same way he left. He did not trust his life with his loved ones he returned to and only felt safe with himself. Yusef shows the soldier walking around by himself acting as if he is still afraid of war and that it will follow him. The soldier is “always with one ear cocked and ready to retreat, to blend with hills…” (61). The soldier is ready to camouflage himself if anything was to happen around him, but he is in society where there is no fighting. The soldier cannot find his place back in society as many soldiers that came back from the war felt. Seeing the destruction and killing that went on in Vietnam scarred many soldiers for life and coming back to a civilized area without fighting was a foreign concept to them. They simply could not adjust back to the way they were because they had been changed and were suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They had seen too many awful things to come back and live their lives as they normally would have.
The poem Report from the Skull’s Diorama addresses the theme of race within the war and the tensions that were occurring. Yusef writes about a white soldier who is flying in a helicopter above Vietnam to go to a black platoon and take men that were killed. The soldier in the helicopter tells the reader “our chopper glides in closer, down to the platoon of black GI’s back from night patrol with five dead” (47). The white soldier is flying safely above the land in a helicopter while there is a group of black GI’s on land at night. The minorities such as African Americans were discriminated against during the war and were sent to do the more dangerous tasks. The platoon lost five men in one night patrol because they were sent to do the tasks that the white soldiers did not want to do. A symbolic part of the poem comes when Yusef describes the black soldiers by saying “These men have lost their tongues” (47). This quote symbolizes that the black soldiers do not have any say in the tasks they receive and cannot voice their opinions. The black soldiers in the war were treated poorly and sent to do the most dangerous work and essentially were sent to die in the line of fire before the white soldiers went into the area.
These themes are commonly seen in Vietnam veterans and in many stories that are written about the war. The soldiers experienced different combat and areas, but left with many of the same issues.