In Country Bobbie Ann Mason Essay

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“In Country” by Bobbie Ann Mason is a story of a teenage girl, named Sam, who had lost her father in Vietnam before she was born, struggles with finding her identity. Sam takes care of her uncle, as her mother leaves to start a new life in Lexington, a few hours away from Hopewell, Kentucky. Sam believes her mother is wrong on leaving Emmett, a mentally ill veteran to fend for himself. Sam lets her mother leave and stays behind to look after him. The two of them have a unique bond. Though the pair together is happy, Emmett seems discontent with his life. He avoids social interactions, and just seems a bit out of his mind so to speak. It's as if he is waiting for something to jar him from this long rut he has been in since the war, maybe even before it. He believes himself and everything around him to be a lost cause. In regards to his house he …show more content…

Between sharp, sudden, onset headaches and publicent acne at the age of thirty-five, it is obvious that he is a troubled man. He went into Vietnam not knowing what it meant for him and his future. Despite surviving Vietnam, he finds himself suffering from trauma and not being sure of what to do with himself. He struggles great day to day, sticking to simple routines to make life more palatable, such as eating at McDonald’s every morning with fellow veterans, watching M*A*S*H on television, and worrying over his cat. Emmett is notorious for bringing the first hippies into Hopewell, Kentucky from his trip to California after he left Vietnam. He also hung a Vietcong flag from the clocktower of his town in an act of rebellion. Most people consider him a basket case. His father, who fought in World War II, does not see why Emmett cannot function as a normal man, asking him “When are you going to get a job like everybody else and stop fooling around?”. To this Emmett replies “Ain’t nothing worth doing” (45). His schtick that there are no jobs that are worth doing is a recurring

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