Walker used elements such as point of view and the setting of the story to emphasize the impact of post-war effects on people, relationships, countries, and even in nature. The real problem however, is finding the narrator's inner peace after years of internal conflict with his own personal history during the Vietnam War. Yet no matter how horrid his past actions may be, time goes on and accepting the past is the key to curing these internal "wounds"within his heart and soul, and finally moving on.
Walker does so by giving a lot of distinct detail on the setting and what is going on. He compares every setting and event to similar situations he felt while he was a soldier in Vietnam. He also compares them with a "before" and "after" image, to show us the contrasting states of places before the war and after the war (metaphorically relating to the personal conflict within himself, the "before war" man and the "after war" man, which has, ironically, not changed much.) Walker has the narrator revisit Vietnam to perform "miracle" surgery on children there, as if doing good deeds to Vietnam would take away the bad things he's done. Here he's not only trying to help others, but to help himself, to calm the fierce storm that has never left his mind even after the war. The narrator constantly has flashbacks of war times, which cause him to reel back from the progress of forgiving himself. The meeting with Dinh was definitely a setback, and I feel as though the failure of the thumb surgery proves to demonstrate that you can never erase or completely cure what happened in the war, but you can accept it as a part of yourself, as a part of your person, who you are and how you've grown from it. Which is shown in the end when Walker has the narrator sit back in the plane and instead of feeling fear like in the beginning, he feels excitement instead.
My only question is to why Walker did not feel the need to describe Dinh's emotions and feelings of failure the thumb surgery. He does not speak, does not show up at the airport, he simply "disappears" after the surgery. Personally, I felt incomplete and uneasy without the explanation, although the narrator finds closure in the end.
Walker does so by giving a lot of distinct detail on the setting and what is going on. He compares every setting and event to similar situations he felt while he was a soldier in Vietnam. He also compares them with a "before" and "after" image, to show us the contrasting states of places before the war and after the war (metaphorically relating to the personal conflict within himself, the "before war" man and the "after war" man, which has, ironically, not changed much.) Walker has the narrator revisit Vietnam to perform "miracle" surgery on children there, as if doing good deeds to Vietnam would take away the bad things he's done. Here he's not only trying to help others, but to help himself, to calm the fierce storm that has never left his mind even after the war. The narrator constantly has flashbacks of war times, which cause him to reel back from the progress of forgiving himself. The meeting with Dinh was definitely a setback, and I feel as though the failure of the thumb surgery proves to demonstrate that you can never erase or completely cure what happened in the war, but you can accept it as a part of yourself, as a part of your person, who you are and how you've grown from it. Which is shown in the end when Walker has the narrator sit back in the plane and instead of feeling fear like in the beginning, he feels excitement instead.
My only question is to why Walker did not feel the need to describe Dinh's emotions and feelings of failure the thumb surgery. He does not speak, does not show up at the airport, he simply "disappears" after the surgery. Personally, I felt incomplete and uneasy without the explanation, although the narrator finds closure in the end.
I think that "I am the Grass" is a difficult story to analyze, and you did a better job than I did when I attempted it. Kudos :) I totally appreciate your interpretation, but there's one point I disagree with a little that I'll throw out there to be more interesting: I do think that the narrator had changed. Like you said, he definitely maintained many of his wartime sentiments; but like the land, he had added layers and covered up those wounds. Intermixed with his savage, fierce Vietnam War self is his current, careful, good-husband-and-father surgeon self. In terms of your question, I also was curious as to how Dinh felt. Maybe it was left out because ultimately it was beside the point? The narrator had evolved a bit; he went from still having contempt for the Vietnamese to feeling some genuine compassion, even in his sadness for the failure of the toe to "take." I think Dinh was left out of the ending to bring the focus back to the narrator's feelings.
ReplyDeleteI interpreted his actions to help kids as a surgical doctor the similar way you have. However the ending seemed to be contradicting the more I think about it now. I can not tell what is going on in his head in the plane, but I know symbolically I think his inner self accepted the welcoming danger of Vietnam meaning that he just accepted his past actions. I know I don't make any sense haha...
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