Entry 33: Universal Experience

Books and movies relating to war that I have seen before are All Quiet On the Western Front (WWI), Saving Private Ryan (WWII), Pan’s Labyrinth (WWII – Spanish Civil War), Apocalypse Now (Vietnam War), The Pianist (WWII), and even Transformers and X-Men. Those two are imaginary. There might be more but I can’t remember to list them out. The universal theme in Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy? is the insanity of war. Almost every war stories depict the stressful surroundings and their effects on people. War drives people crazy. The Vietnam War is a rather recent event. It’s fought in the 60’s, 50 years from now, not very current but not really old either. In the story the soldiers have modernized weapons and chewing gum. The soldiers came from a modernized country, the U.S., and went to a developing country like Vietnam. The environments of the two countries are totally different. One is in southeast Asia, another in the far northwest. Many countries were involved in this war. In the story, the soldiers have to constantly squat down and wait due to the guerrilla warfare. The Vietcongs hide in the woods or bushes and shoot. There wasn’t any rule to this war either. Both sides used vicious weapons against each other. The Vietnamese set up booby traps. In return the US army used napalms.