Saturday, April 5, 2008
Week 12 Open Topic
One thing I noticed throughout this book was the routine that Emmett did every day. Every morning he would wake up and go to McDonalds and then later in the evening he would watch MASH. Emmett’s life seems to be pretty structured even though he does not have a job or responsibility in his life. Emmett tends to find one thing and then becomes obsessed with it. During one part in the book, Emmett starts to work outside of the house digging underneath the house. He works very hard at trying to fix the foundation of the house. This is a little ironic because Emmett will not get a job or a car, but his work ethic for trying to fix the house contradicts his motivation for his ability to get a job. Emmett’s daily routine seems to be pretty consistent with his other Vietnam buddies. They also go to McDonalds every morning and tend not to have a steady every day. I find this very strange that these people are having such a difficult time with coming back to reality after war.
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It might have to do with what they came home to -- (see lecture notes from the intro to this book). It would be a mistake to see this as a commentary just on the Vietnam war. This book is about the post-Vietnam era, and the cultural shifts and anxieties of that time -- we're meant to see that time as shaped in part by the Vietnam experience, but there are also other factors here (the death of agricultural and rural lifeways; the rise of consumer culture; the sense of randomness/fragmentation that characterizes the postmodern era, etc.)
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