(De)construction of American Masculinity Through Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Bobbie Ann Mason’s In Country

Authors : İdil Didem KESKİNER

Pages : 137-155

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Publication Date : 2020-05-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This article examines Bobbie Ann Mason’s In Country insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1985); to show how the memorialization of the Vietnam War deconstructs the conventional image of the American war hero and his masculinity through the coming of age story of Samantha Hughes. While demonstrating how disruptive normative gender roles are in characters’ daily lives, initiated through Samantha’s passage to adulthood and her search for a father figure in the novel, Mason also shows how Vietnam destroyed the heroic soldier image in national consciousness and shook the noble cause of American exceptionalism. Through a trip to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the book, this article argues that in the search for identity, the protagonist Samantha questions both the morality of the Vietnam War and the traditional masculine attitudes of American men. Hence, the trip to the Memorial initiates a healing process as well as a confrontation of the emasculated American hero who did not feel appreciated and honored by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which became one of the most controversial historical memorializations of war in the United States.
Keywords : Vietnam War, Masculinity, Memorialization, In Country, Bobbie Ann Mason, Vietnam Veterans Memorial