Semester 2 Blog 8

Choice # 1) In a well developed, thoughtful piece of writing that uses direct quotes, explain the relationship between your honors novel and the time period that fostered it's creation.


My honors novel talks about the Vietnam War and the anti-war attitudes that were created during its duration. The author, Ron Kovic, describes his story of the Vietnam War. He illustrates the childhood fantasies of war and how society pushed him to join the military for the beginning duration of the book. Kovic talks about his childhood passions, and he mentions all of the people that were heroes to him when he was a child, "Like Mickey Mantle and the fabulous New York Yankees, John Wayne in The Sands of Iwo Jima became one of my heroes". The way Kovic was exposed to war and the military, the more inclined he was to join. This reflected a part of culture that was in the USA leaving World War II and nearing the Vietnam War. One scene really brings out the idea that society encourages military involvement when Marine recruiters come in to Kovic's high school and give a speech to all the boys interested in the military, "'The marines have been the first in everything... There is nothing finer, nothing prouder, than a United States Marine.'... I was going to leave on a train one morning and become a marine." Because of that one event, led on by American society at the time, Kovic joined the Marines and went to the Vietnam War, losing his legs and his lifestyle with 2 years of service and three bullets on the Vietnamese soil.


Kovic shows the change in attitude towards the war and growth of anti-war culture in America with his own internal change in view. He decided to protest against the war and partake in the anti-war cause as a speaker, telling his story to crowds of people. "The terrible injustice that took the lives of more than 58,000 Americans and over two million vietnamese. We had to act. We had to speak." This quote concisely brings out the feeling of the time, that nobody wanted the war anymore. This understanding of war and massive protest of it, routed in our culture now, is reflected today as it was during Kovic's time. And the same forces battle for supremacy, the forces that want to recruit people (including 18 year olds) for war, and those who want to prevent any military action as is possible. Kovics story thus covers the thinking of the time period and beyond, since before the Vietnam War, people were more ready to go into war for a cause. Kovic underlines the point with the anti-war argument that there was little point and reason for going into the Vietnam War.