Perhaps the most obvious symbol about the war in this story so far is Agent Orange. Throughout almost every chapter Sam refers to Agent Orange and how it is affecting effecting Emmett’s life. It is apparent to not just the reader, but everyone throughout the story that Emmett is having bad problems with the complexion of his face, which is a side effect of Agent Orange. Even when Jim came to tell Emmett about the veteran dance, he exclaimed” Your face looks bad, Emmett” (60). On top of the problems that Emmett has with his face, he has a persisting pain in his head that does not seem to go away.
Perhaps what is worse than the problems Agent Orange is causing for veterans is the government’s lack of acceptance that things like this actually happened. When Emmett went to the doctor to see about his problems, the doctor said the veterans wanted to “blame everything from a sore toe to a fever blister on Agent Orange” (75). This allows us to realize just how ignorant the US government was, or maybe they just could not admit to the American public that they messed up and would have to compensate those that were hurt during the war.
In Time's article, it explains how the Reagan and Bush administration tried to only give benefits to those with certain alignments that were caused by Agent Orange. This article also talks about how scientist found out years later how Agent Orange can cause cancers and birth defects. This is a perfect representation of our government acting without fully investigating the full effects of the consequences after the fact.
Perhaps what is worse than the problems Agent Orange is causing for veterans is the government’s lack of acceptance that things like this actually happened. When Emmett went to the doctor to see about his problems, the doctor said the veterans wanted to “blame everything from a sore toe to a fever blister on Agent Orange” (75). This allows us to realize just how ignorant the US government was, or maybe they just could not admit to the American public that they messed up and would have to compensate those that were hurt during the war.
In Time's article, it explains how the Reagan and Bush administration tried to only give benefits to those with certain alignments that were caused by Agent Orange. This article also talks about how scientist found out years later how Agent Orange can cause cancers and birth defects. This is a perfect representation of our government acting without fully investigating the full effects of the consequences after the fact.
3 comments:
If i remember we had a class discussion on this very topic, that our government is refusing to believe that Agent Orange is causing some of these major medical issues in our veterans today. They would much rather just forget about everything. It is appauling to me that just because the war had not concluded with ending we had planned that our country is trying to forget everything about it, like it might just go away.
It also shows how the United States government has a hard time admitting that they were wrong in using Agent Orange in the battle field. Throughout history the government has rarely admitted something they did that was wrong and Agent Orange is another issue. After many years, they still are very reluctant to talk about this issue which has affected numerous American families.
Show me a Times article that blames the Carter and Clinton Administration for the same things, and I will eat your hat. For the most part the alleged “Agent Orange” myths have been debunked for a long time now.
Below is simply one article that describes how so much of it was simply fake:
http://www.wintersoldier.com/staticpages/index.php?page=20040322202417459
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