One of the main issues that I saw recurring in the novel “In Country” by Bobbie Ann Mason, was Agent Orange. I had never heard of Agent Orange until this class. I looked it up in Google and found a very good website that talks about Agent Orange for Veterans, (http://www1.va.gov/agentorange/) especially those who fought in Vietnam.
Agent Orange is a herbicide that was used during the Vietnam War to kill unwanted plant life or to remove leaves from trees, which served as cover for the enemy. This way, the US could have more visibility. This is a very dangerous herbicide because of the effects that it has on people. Studies have shown that exposure to this chemical indicates an increase risk of cancer and genetic defects, and now all Vietnam Veterans are very concerned with their health after the war.
I believe that it is horrible to know that the US used a chemical that harmed its own army. To think that they didn’t stop to test the chemical for side effects or to see what other effects it had other than killing plants. I have now seen many images of people who have been exposed to Agent Orange, and children born with defects because of this chemical and they are absolutely shocking and hard to believe that the US could spray this chemical like rain all over Vietnam without knowing what it actually did.
In the novel, Sam Hughes’ uncle and father both served in Vietnam, and her father actually died there. In Part One, Chapter 1, Sam mentions that her uncle Emmett is a large man “of thirty-five with pimples on his face” (6). Later in the novel she says to a man called Pete that Emmet has Agent Orange because of his pimples on his face (47). Sam then keeps insisting that Emmett has Agent Orange later in the book (56 and 60), even though Emmett keeps saying that it is only acne.
Here you can see one of the many side effects that Agent Orange has on people who were exposed to them.
Agent Orange is a herbicide that was used during the Vietnam War to kill unwanted plant life or to remove leaves from trees, which served as cover for the enemy. This way, the US could have more visibility. This is a very dangerous herbicide because of the effects that it has on people. Studies have shown that exposure to this chemical indicates an increase risk of cancer and genetic defects, and now all Vietnam Veterans are very concerned with their health after the war.
I believe that it is horrible to know that the US used a chemical that harmed its own army. To think that they didn’t stop to test the chemical for side effects or to see what other effects it had other than killing plants. I have now seen many images of people who have been exposed to Agent Orange, and children born with defects because of this chemical and they are absolutely shocking and hard to believe that the US could spray this chemical like rain all over Vietnam without knowing what it actually did.
In the novel, Sam Hughes’ uncle and father both served in Vietnam, and her father actually died there. In Part One, Chapter 1, Sam mentions that her uncle Emmett is a large man “of thirty-five with pimples on his face” (6). Later in the novel she says to a man called Pete that Emmet has Agent Orange because of his pimples on his face (47). Sam then keeps insisting that Emmett has Agent Orange later in the book (56 and 60), even though Emmett keeps saying that it is only acne.
Here you can see one of the many side effects that Agent Orange has on people who were exposed to them.
1 comment:
Those pictures are absolutely horrific. It is so unsettling to think that it was the U.S. that caused so many people this degree of pain and suffering to simply make the terrain more visible for our soldiers. This chemical was so destructive, that it is difficult to believe that the U.S. had no idea of the damage they were causing to both the Vietnamese and our own soldiers who were already putting their lives at stake for the sake of the country. I also think that it's interesting that Emmett is so resistant to believing that he is suffering from the side effects of Agent Orange. Perhaps, it's because he wants to distance his physical self from the context of the war.
Post a Comment