What’s the worst thing of the war?

It is over, but it is never over.

“The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, was a war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975.” (Wikipedia) The Vietnam War exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities. In amount, about 12 million people died, 2.5 million people got hurt, 7 million people missed, and enormous financial lose that could not be estimated. After the war, the veterans could not be involved in the society and suffer from mental issues and other problems like homelessness and unemployment. My project discusses the huge cost of the war and the pain the veterans suffer.

The genre I choose in my RIP project is a mixture of documentary and personal narrative. I both use authentic information and fictive stories. The project has four chapters. Each chapter is narrated in the first person point of view by different people. The purpose is to show the cruelty and darkness of the war, the pain and nightmare the war brings to the veterans and the lack of understand and hard life of the Vietnam veterans. The war is not a pleasant topic. It is too dark and bloody for most people to talk about, so they just avoid it. However, the problem remains no matter whether people talk about it. Also some people think the war was totally a mistake, so they also blame the Vietnam veterans and view them as murderers. They show lack of understand to the Vietnam veterans and exclude them. Many of the veterans suffer from high rates of divorce, drug abuse, unemployment and homelessness. So I choose to use the first person narrative to make the stories more real and attract the audience to make them have more sympathy and empathy. Most people only see the pain of people dying, but I want to show them in the first narrative about the pain of people who are alive. I change the characters of personal narrative to make the story more complete. Since everyone has different opinion on one same thing but none of these single opinion is the whole story.

In the first chapter, the character I use to tell the story is a mother of a Vietnam veteran who just come back home. I detaily depict the psychology of the mother and the decadency of the son, Zach. I first wrote about the worry and fear the mother suffers during the years waiting for her son, without knowing whether he is alive or die and the physical pain Zach suffers. Then move on the mental problems they suffer to make a contrast: “But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of our problem.” In this way, I try to make the immaterial pain of the characters more real and lively to the audience. I depict Zach’s mental issues by portraying his appearance, “He is so pale and thin, like a crumpled paper.” With sunken eyes, more grey hairs and stubbly beard in his unshaven chin, he looks much older, very haggard and tired.” I also portray his mental state: “He has bad dreams every night, screaming and struggling like somebody is attacking him. He sweats a lot and mutters. When I wake him up, his eyes are hollow and his body is shaking. I cry and hug him.” I try to mention Zach and his mother’s pain in different ways to make the audience identify with them. I use the character as a veteran’s mother to show their families’ pain. How much is the pain when a mother says she thinks it might be better for her son die in the war?

In the second chapter, I choose an old Vietnam veteran to tell his experience. I write about his nightmare in different aspect: he lives alone without family or friends; he has terrible mental issues; he died alone eventually. I emphasize his nightmare of seeing the ghost. “They are bleeding with dreadful wounds. Some lose their legs or arms or ears, and some even with only half of their heads.” “Sometimes I see them holding the guns or having their hands around my throat, trying to kill me. I used to struggling and screaming.” I try to portray the horrible experience he has during the war in another aspect, and the nightmare follows him after the way. I write this part quite detaily to show the audience the cruelty of the war. I also make contrast of the past and the present of him. When he was young, he imagined him to be a hero and protected his country. But now, he is viewed as a murderer. He used not believe superstitious people talking about ghosts, but now he believes. He used to struggling about this kind of life, but now he is apathetic and just wait for death. And when he dies alone, the irony is this: “All the ghosts I see these years are standing beside my bed.” The only “people” with him are the ghosts he killed. I choose this character to show the veteran’s pain directly.

In the chapter 3, I show how a normal person views the Vietnam War and veterans with the social influence. I show his despise and prejudice to the Vietnam veterans. “He is a thin and pain old guy. He is so gloomy that I bet he killed many people during the war. The babies always cry near him because of fear. People in my block never talks to him and avoid him when they see him. It’s good that he seldom goes out, or my friend and I will teach him a lesson about the mistake he had. All the veterans should be shame about the massacre they did during the war. It’s a mercy that they were not sent to the military court and killed to pay for what they did. They should atone for their sin with lives.” He is just a miniature of the whole society. After the Vietnam War, the American people view the war as a mistake. So they view the veterans as murderers instead of heroes. I add this character that don’t really experience or know much about the war to show the audience people’s prejudice and lack of understanding to the veterans. My audience may used to be one of these people, but I hope after reading my project, they may think in a diverse way. I try to show the veteran’s pain in a different aspect, the pain they get from the social.

In Chapter 4, I choose Tim O’Brien, the author of The Things They Carried, which is a collection of short stories based on his own experience during the Vietnam War. He wrote the book to show the pain these veterans suffer and try to cure the pain. The genre of this part is more like a documentary, to show some real numbers and data of the war. I use many questions like “What’s the worst part of the war” to include the audience as a part, to make them think deeply about my purpose and the war. I make a contrast of how these veterans are before and after the war. Through the words of Tim O’ Brien, I try to show the grief and terrible condition the veterans are in. “Disapproval of the war from American citizens was an important environmental factor accounting for veteran’s post war stress. Prior to this time period veterans coming back from war were always viewed as heroes who protect the country. However, Vietnam War veterans came back home were viewed as murders. Normally these war heroes were encouraged to talk about their war experiences but in this case they were not and were shunned by a lot of the community. They couldn’t back to the society and were marginalized by others.” The war was wrong, but they were not. They carried the miserable memory about the war, pain and illness from the war, the incomprehension from their nation, and the mistake which was not their fault.

I also mention the same sentence in all of the four chapters: “The war is over. But it is never over.” Although the war was over years ago, the influence never ends. I want to show the audience with the repetition that the pain of the war is everlasting. And that’s the worst part of the war.

Works Cited

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War
2. O’Brien, T., The Things They Carried, http://savanna.auhsd.us/view/26051.pdf