Obasan was about the internment of innocent Japanese Canadian during World War 2 as people felt that they were a threat and could spy on Canada on behalf of Japan. Although in most cases that was not true, the internment was a result of people’s irrational fears. It showed the dark side of humanity. Canada is generally a peaceful society of toleration, yet something like this could potentially happen there. World War II is touted as a just war where the Nazi’s and totalitarian regimes were the “evil” that the Allied powers who were “good” were to defeat. But the atmosphere of fear is what allowed the regime to come to power in Germany in the first place, so Obasan raises the important question, are we really much better than our enemies? The
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The author describes deaths in a very matter of fact way, almost void of emotion, and in this way is trying to portray the emptiness and almost numb feeling that soldiers go through when they have traumatic experiences. CH. 13 goes back to Berlin’s complicated relationship with his father, and how his father always made him feel inferior in terms of masculinity, and he became a soldier to make him father proud of him and to prove himself to his father. He believes there is a “twinkling star” within him. By Ch. 14 they all reach the bottom of the hole and it can be assumed that Sarkin’s aunts are dead. Berlin starts laughing as it is his way of dealing with the situation and coping with the horrifying situation, he is laughing and is hysterical with fear. The Vietcong soldier that they encountered in the tunnel was polite to the Americans, and although they are supposed to be enemies, their exchange is amicable. This is representative of how there was no defined enemy in the war, and during battles such as the My Lai massacre, there was no real distinction between the enemy and your side. Lieutenant Martin justifies his actions by saying that “someone has to go” and does not value the individual lives of his soldiers. .In a broader sense this is how the Vietnam war veterans were treated, and how much of the actions of the war were justified. This is also part of what made the war so unpopular. Bernie Lynn volunteering to go into the tunnel shows how the soldiers who sacrifice themselves are the brave and noble ones as they put their duty above themselves. Van exists all alone in the tunnel, and he experiences intense isolation as a result of his attempt to desert. His story is similar to Cacciato’s as he was forced to fight a war he didn’t care about, and tried to escape. The tunnel represents the inescapable suffering of the Vietnam vets and what they experience in their
The author describes deaths in a very matter of fact way, almost void of emotion, and in this way is trying to portray the emptiness and almost numb feeling that soldiers go through when they have traumatic experiences. CH. 13 goes back to Berlin’s complicated relationship with his father, and how his father always made him feel inferior in terms of masculinity, and he became a soldier to make him father proud of him and to prove himself to his father. He believes there is a “twinkling star” within him. By Ch. 14 they all reach the bottom of the hole and it can be assumed that Sarkin’s aunts are dead. Berlin starts laughing as it is his way of dealing with the situation and coping with the horrifying situation, he is laughing and is hysterical with fear. The Vietcong soldier that they encountered in the tunnel was polite to the Americans, and although they are supposed to be enemies, their exchange is amicable. This is representative of how there was no defined enemy in the war, and during battles such as the My Lai massacre, there was no real distinction between the enemy and your side. Lieutenant Martin justifies his actions by saying that “someone has to go” and does not value the individual lives of his soldiers. .In a broader sense this is how the Vietnam war veterans were treated, and how much of the actions of the war were justified. This is also part of what made the war so unpopular. Bernie Lynn volunteering to go into the tunnel shows how the soldiers who sacrifice themselves are the brave and noble ones as they put their duty above themselves. Van exists all alone in the tunnel, and he experiences intense isolation as a result of his attempt to desert. His story is similar to Cacciato’s as he was forced to fight a war he didn’t care about, and tried to escape. The tunnel represents the inescapable suffering of the Vietnam vets and what they experience in their