Bobbie Ann Mason In Country Analysis

Growing up in Bobbie Ann Mason’s In Country
Part of growing up is about discovering different things about yourself, and that includes your identity. Bobbie Ann Mason writes about a young woman searching to find herself in the novel In Country, while trying to put together the missing pieces of her life, which was caused by the Vietnam War. Sam is confronted with the fact that she knows nothing about her father or the war that caused his death. At the beginning of the novel, Sam sees her father as something that can only be contained in a picture. She wants to make her father a more personal figure in her life instead of just a photo. Sam goes on a quest for information about her father, seeking answers from her uncle Emmett and his friends that also participated in the Vietnam War, which
As Sam takes a step forward in finding out the truth about a man who was just a picture to her throughout her entire life, she also gains a step forward in helping her find her identity.
The most fundamental part of a coming to age story is the problem of self-knowledge, which is the case for Sam since she is lacking the key element of having a family; which in most cases give people their sense of identity. Sam decides to go to a Vietnam vet party in Hopewell with her uncle so she could get her questions answered. This party can help Sam with finding herself; Cresswell mentions, “[M]emory appears to be a personal thing . . . But memory is also social.”(Qtd. Cresswell, 119). The party is a social event where Sam can meet her uncle’s friends and get answers about her father and what the atmosphere of Vietnam was like. The party was held in a local community center for the vets; the theme of the party was the