Blog 10 RR

The book "In Country" is a coming home story about the lives of people affected, both directly and indirectly, by the Vietnam War. The plot is based around Sam, a teenager who lost her father before birth in battle in Vietnam. She is much like other kids her age around the country who have also lost their family members in the war. However, her life is much different in that she also lives without a mother. Though her mother, Irene, is still alive, Sam lives with her uncle Emmett, a Vietnam vet, in the small town of Hopewell, Kentucky, while her mother lives with a new husband and new baby in Lexington. The main plot of the book is bookended by Sam's trip with her grandmother and uncle to the Vietnam War Memorial to see her father's name.

Throughout the book, we see Sam trying to constantly find out more about the Vietnam war through her uncle, Emmett, and his friends. We begin to see the signs of PTSD in Emmett, though Sam just thinks initially that it is just the way he is, though she is concerned that he may be sick because of Agent Orange. She specifically wanted to find out about the Vietnam war to see what her father had experienced and endured before his death. Sam also learns about herself throughout the book through different experiences, trying to figure out who she really is. She seems to get along so well with Emmett because they both feel lost, like they should be somewhere other than Hopewell. Emmett is haunted by the memories of the Vietnam War, and she is haunted by the history of her family that she really doesn't know.

The pop culture of the 1980s, as well as the Vietnam War era, was very prevalent throughout the entire book. We see the first glimpse of this when we learn that Sam and Emmett watch about 3 hours of television a night, including one hour of the then hit show, M*A*S*H, a show based on soldiers in Korea. We also see John Lennon, the Beatles, and Bruce Springsteen's music, specifically "Born in the USA", referenced in the book. The fact that Sam mentions it constantly shows the strong influence that this culture had on her. She connected with these artists because of how vocal they were against the war. She wanted to be vocal and to have her voice be heard, and wanted to learn about what really happened in Vietnam, but nobody was willing to listen or talk. It seems that she turned to music to connect with because she feels like she will learn who she is, and who her father was.