In the chapter, Field Trip, Tim explains how his daughter Kathleen is confused when he is going through memories during the war. I find this theme important as it shows the value of knowing what different people go through in their daily lives. This chapter differentiates the perspectives of both Kathleen and her father which gives the reader the impression that Kathleen is ignorant to what her father thinks and feels. But in reality, she has never been in war nor has her father told her much about his experiences to her. In this quote, "Kathleen seemed nervous. She squinted at me, her hands fluttering. "Listen, this is stupid," she said, "you can't even hardly get wet. How can you swim out there?"(Tim O'Brien, 178), Kathleen seems to be thinking that Tim is doing something very dangerous because she does not know what is going through his head. She thinks that he has become crazy and gets a bit nervous for what he was going to do next. This theme relates to me quite a bit because I never understood how hard my dad worked to get his job. I thought it was a straight forward process but then realized it took a lot of hard work and dedication to get where he got. I always used to joke around that it was really easy to get a great job as an engineer which made my dad annoyed and frustrated.
The research question I wanted to research was, "How did the Draft change life in America?". I learned from a New York Times article that deferments were used as a tool for making people take occupations in the nation's interest rather than having to go to war. This was called Manpower Channeling. Many of the middle-class people were expected to act on this because they thought that going to war was just for people who have made poor choices. The working class did not have a say because they had already finished college and could not receive deferments. Deferments were important during the Vietnam War because it was the only way to help the army and avoid actually fighting directly in the war; however, this caused many riots among the working class because this was simply not fair. They had no choice on whether they were drafted while the middle class have a personal choice with deferments.
Rutenberg, Amy J. “How the Draft Reshaped America.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/opinion/vietnam-draft.html.
The research question I wanted to research was, "How did the Draft change life in America?". I learned from a New York Times article that deferments were used as a tool for making people take occupations in the nation's interest rather than having to go to war. This was called Manpower Channeling. Many of the middle-class people were expected to act on this because they thought that going to war was just for people who have made poor choices. The working class did not have a say because they had already finished college and could not receive deferments. Deferments were important during the Vietnam War because it was the only way to help the army and avoid actually fighting directly in the war; however, this caused many riots among the working class because this was simply not fair. They had no choice on whether they were drafted while the middle class have a personal choice with deferments.
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| Americans convincing other citizens not to register for the Draft. |
This is a great theme to acknowledge, especially in these last five chapters. I’m curious to know if there was ever a time in your life where you knew exactly what you were doing and why but other people questioned you or showed ignorance? Similar to Kathleen with Tim.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really interesting that people in the lower class were more likely to go to war. I guess it makes sense, because lower class people are more available and less valuable to the economy. It's just strange because it feels so un-American, in the way that it almost doesn't recognize everyone as equal.
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