Loung Ung Analysis

When they arrived in America a cowboy helped them settled into their new house. He paid the rent three months ahead. Mother could not believe his generosity until Brother Quang says the American government gives sponsors money, she was even more amazed by the generosity of the American government until Brother Quang says it’s all to ease the guilt of losing the war.” Ha and her family will now have to adapt to her new surroundings because it’s different from Vietnam. Most of the things will be unfamiliar to Ha because she has to learn English. Ha then started school at first it was ruff because she was getting bullied, “They pulled my arm hair, they threw rocks at me, they promised to stomp on my chest.” It twisted inside out, for her at school. The first person she told was brother Vu, she then asked him to teach her defense. After he taught her defense her life came back again, she started to understand English much better and no longer gets

Going through an era when the Vietnam War was a smash hit in your town, many high school senior boys would be drafted out if their number was on the list of people. The men drafted had to leave behind their families and aspirations. Tim O’Brien uses different perspectives in The Things They Carried to show if something tragic happens in life, consequently dealing with it may be hard. Moving on will help in the future.

When O’Connor was 12, her father took a position with the American Legion Post of Georgia and spent most of his time traveling. Edward was traveling so much that he and the family started to neglect financial obligations, and ended up having to move to Milledgeville. A few years later, when O’Connor was 15, her father died at age 45 from Lupus. O’Connors father was always on the road, so he was hardly at home. With him always gone and then his passing, it was clear that

The author Maryse Conde has based the story of Segu on real life events and practices of the late 18th and early 19th century. The author has tried to bring out the tensions that existed in Africa at that time by using the four brothers of the Traore family,Tiekoro, Siga, Naba and Malobali as scapegoats. She talks about each of these characters in depth to show us their influences on the city. She shows how traditional religion and Islam impact each character in the story.

Many of the wives talked about the letter their husband/boyfriend sent home, and their inability to talk about anything other than the "weather". One particular wife stood out though for her husband's story. She said he husband left her a simple note that read “I love you sweetheart, but I can't take the flashbacks", before he went in to the garage and killed himself. In this case, it is obvious that whatever the soldier witnessed in Vietnam greatly affected him. He was unable to take seeing the atrocities that he witnessed in Vietnam anymore, he was willing to go to the extreme of taking his own life- dismantling not only his own life, but also his whole families- just to avoid seeing the visions anymore. This would lead many to assume that events the soldiers saw were horrific, and continued to affect them even after they had already returned home. One soldiers wife said "he lost his soul in Vietnam but it took 7 years for his body to catch up", soldiers were dehumanized by the things they had to in Vietnam and this cause them to "die" even though their hearts were still technically beating.

Once the family has been evacuated and are on a train to an internment camp, the daughter takes over as narrator and represents a different impression of the Japanese Americans. The

The Vietnam War was a long conflict lasting between 1955 to 1975 between the communist North and the democratic south with help from the United States. More than 3 million people, including 58,000 American troops were killed in the conflict. Tim O 'brien 's short story “The Things They Carried” follows a platoon named alpha company during the peak of the Vietnam war led by first lieutenant Jimmy Cross who is very charismatic but in his mind he is unsure how to lead his squad because his mind tends to wander to a thought of a girl back home. Throughout the story he has overcome with emotions and guilt because he believes he his the reason for some of his squadmates death. “The Things They Carried” Embodies the hardship, reality, and price/toll of war, ultimately Tim O’brien writes this masterpiece as not of a war story, but as a love story and how that love changed a man.

It all began in 1968, when Tim O'brien receive a draft notice. Tim was bound for Harvard and thinks he’s too good for war. He doesn’t really want to go to Vietnam, so he decide to run away to Canada which he knew was wrong. When he got to Canada, he finds an old resort called the Tip Top Lodge. Its owner was Elroy Berdahl who O’brien says saved his life. O’Brien stays there for six days. On the last day, Elroy takes O’brien fishing in the rainy river. Elroy stopped within swimming distance to Minnesota and O’brien was faced with dilemma: jump and swim or stay. He started crying and on the other side, he sees hallucination of his family, and friends. He was too scared to jump, so Elroy steers back to the lodge. He left the next morning, drove back home, and heads to Vietnam.

The organization of the story follows Loung Ung’s life from the day they left their home to the day she left for America. Since, this story is from a child’s point of view there is less of a political importance and more emotional based. Each chapter contributes to Loung Ung 's main point because as the story develops so does the affect on Ung. Each chapter Loung becomes more aware with her surroundings and forced to grow up quick.

In this final chapter, O’Brien strings the various threads of plot events together to form a cohesive message. Each of the major themes is illuminated as each of the major stories is retold mostly told about Vietnam and a younger version of himself

Her Uncle, Emmet, is also sent to Vietnam only when he comes back to the United States he suffers from PTSD and becomes a hippie. After Emmet returns from War Sam’s mother, Irene, takes care of him and eventually lets Emmet be the caretaker of Sam and the house as she moves to Lexington to continue school and start a family at the University of Kentucky. During this time Sam and Emmet become very close and Sam spends time around some more time with some of Emmett's friends that are also vets. The story follows Sam as she searches for more detailed information about what exactly Vietnam was like, meanwhile trying to find out more about her father in the process. Not only is this a coming of age story, but also one of a loss of innocence. Sam ultimately discovers that the war was viewed in different ways and had differing effects in the soldiers morals.

Continuing with the views of Nguyen and his parents, Nguyen’s split identity of being Vietnamese and American is fueled by the way he interacts with his family. The aforementioned disagreement between Nguyen and his parents on fighting the

The streets of Ho Chi Minh City are beautiful around the summer time, but my favorite city was Huế, the city of cheap eats. My siblings and I have never been to Vietnam before, so it was an experience for all of us. As we were sitting down in a restaurant, looking at the menu, an old lady came up to us to take our order. My mother used to order for my brothers, so she ordered for them. When the lady looked at me, waiting for me to give her my order, all I could do was point at the picture on the menu and give her a smile. The look on her face was clear displeased. “She was born in America. She doesn’t know Vietnamese,” my father quickly told her, apologizing for my lack of knowledge. I felt embarrassed, lowering my head whenever she came near us. It was not my fault that I did not know my native language, but it was not my fault entirely for being able to learn it all these

After his story, another family is interviewed due to the arrest of their son, Nathan Damigo, who after a month from coming home from Iraq was arrested. Nathan’s grandmother said his nightmares were getting worse; Nathan said he thought he was having another nightmare while holding a taxi driver at gunpoint and realizing it was not a nightmare when the police arrested him. After this story, another letter was narrated explaining how he heard a big shell and how he saw men blown to pieces and dreamed of it once he was back home. The last family interviewed was a survivor whose wife said that he did not die in war but yet somehow he did. The man said that he had come so close to hitting his wife because he felt angry all the time and the wife said she had thoughts of leaving him but she didn’t. Lastly, he was pointing out his metals, talked about his nightmares, and how he has seen humanity at his

This shows the effects of the Vietnam War and how it can cause separation between the family not just physically but also mentally.