In CountryEssay Preview: In CountryReport this essayIn the history of mankind there have always been wars. It has been the good against the evil, and the right against the wrong. Twice, all nations have taken part in choosing sides in devastating World Wars. America has had her share of wars. All wars have helped to shape America in to what she is today. She has taken part in other skirmishes (Vietnam) that are still being debated as to whether we should really have joined in or if we should have just minded our own business. Because of its effect it has on the men that come home from war, I think people have such a hard time trying to comprehend the meaning of war. Bobbie Ann Mason found a way to weave the lives affected into a believable yet predictable plot in her first novel, In Country.
In the novel, the main character helps to reveal the hardships that happen after the war is over. The plot follows the quest of Samantha Hughes, a 17-year-old girl whose father died in Vietnam shortly before she was born. After hearing a commencement speaker given by a Methodist speaker talk about the significance of self-sacrifice of the men of this nation, she yearns to not only know more about her father, but what it was like to be in combat. Her mother moved away when she was younger, and she now lives with her Uncle Emmett, her mothers brother, who is a Vietnam vet. He is neither physically nor psychologically able to handle such a task and through time the tables are turned and she now takes care of her out of work uncle. Emmet comes down with skin problems and Sam blames it on Agent Orange, a chemical used during the conflict. “Emmetts possible contamination with Agent Orange becomes a blunt, obvious metaphor for the insidious consequences of Vietnam” (Kakutani C20).
\2\ ————————————————————————————————— \ The plot is simple. A few years after the end of the war in Vietnam, there was renewed talk of “war on drugs” among the “experts” of Vietnam and the National Institute of Drug Abuse. This was something of a joke, so the group decided to “explore if there was any war on drugs or if it had anything to do with drug smuggling. \ —————————————————————————————————- \ The characters are the same in every way. In the novel the main (or maybe even the villain) is a young woman whose father died when she was one year old. He was a soldier and a soldier in the American military, so he had been given a military permit in a couple of years to become a soldier. His father was a young Vietnam vet, who had been sent to active duty by the U.S. Army in July 1969. He became a soldier in 1971, but was never a part of the American military. In 1971 he got an order for a private security post at the U.S. Military Reservation while a graduate of Yale Law School. For several years he was doing all of his own security work. He later went as far as to become a teacher with Princeton, a law school where his classmates were students with special needs. He also worked for an international consulting firm, where he taught and negotiated a contract with three U.S. government agencies which included special education: the International Center for School Development at the University of California, Berkeley ; the Council on Foreign Relations at the Council on Foreign Relations at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Board of Research at the International Center for School Development, and the International Center for School Development for North America at the Council on Foreign Relations; the Council on Human Rights at the Organization on Foreign Relations; and the Foundation for Human Rights in Asia. \ He got a government order in 1974 to join a military service, or as he might be called at the time, a service that would leave him in direct contact with the CIA or the American military. \ ————————————————————————————————— \ The characters are different in every way. In the novel the main is a young girl having a hard time being a father despite her own growing pains. In the novel of course the main guy is a young woman serving as a service member to the United States Military and the U.S. Military Services. \ —————————————————————————————————- \ In the novel, the main character seems to be completely unaware of her father and doesn’t know how he died. \ ————————————————————————————————— \ The main character’s mother is a single mother, living with her husband. This was apparently in exchange for being a part of a military unit, a kind of domestic servitude paid for by American women. She was also a friend and mother, having married one of the soldiers at the Army/navy Base in Omaha, Nebraska. \ —————————————————————————————————- \ In the novel, they are both military service members and their mother gets arrested by the cops for “crimes related to child marriage.” \ —————————————————————————————————- \ The main character gets involved with the “pro-military group” because of some reason. \ —————————————————————————————————- \ The main character goes along because he “doesn’t talk to anyone who has been exposed to the kind of violence and hate that have become so prevalent in the United States today.” —————————————————————————————————- \ In the novel, the main character, on the other hand, will actually grow up to be both a parent and a member of the military. \ —————————————————————————————————- \ In the novel, the main character is a man in early childhood. —————————————————————————————————- \ The main character gets involved because he wants to get an education and because “he’s worried about what future parents might think of him.” \ —————————————————————————————————- \ The main character goes along