ABSTRACT
Paul Fussell, John Wayne, Heart of Darkness, The Naked and the Dead, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder-what do these people, books, and a psychological disorder have in common with American literature about the Vietnam War? The answer: each represents a thematic context (a war theme) to aid readers in understanding and evaluating Vietnam war stories by connecting them to historical events, other modern war literature, and American culture. This chapter introduces five of these contexts, ones that significantly help readers appreciate these narratives. Such contextual approaches to reading these works counteract the tendency of inexperienced readers of war literature to approach Vietnam narratives in a vacuum. Immersed in this popular contemporary literature, these readers often are unaware of the literary, cultural, and historical connections directly or indirectly influencing the purpose, content, and form of Vietnam war stories. Were the combat experiences of Americans in Vietnam unique among wars; or is the epigraph from Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato about the sameness of wars also accurate? Compared to soldier-authors writing about other wars, do Vietnam veterans view their experiences differently and present war stories in distinct forms? Or is there a continuity among themes, characters, and narrative strategies throughout modern war literature? These are some of the questions addressed in this chapter on contexts.
