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Vietnam Literary Journalism Answers

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Which excerpt from A Rumor of War best illustrates Vietnam’s uncomfortable climate?

By autumn, what had begun as an adventurous expedition had turned into an exhausting, indecisive war of attrition in which we fought for no cause other than our own survival.

But there were no Normandies and Gettysburgs for us, no epic clashes that decided the fates of armies or nations. The war was mostly a matter of enduring weeks of expectant waiting and, at random intervals, of conducting vicious manhunts through jungles and swamps where snipers harassed us constantly and booby traps cut us down one by one.

The tedium was occasionally relieved by a large-scale search-and-destroy operation, but the exhilaration of riding the lead helicopter into a landing zone was usually followed by more of the same hot walking, with the mud sucking at our boots and the sun thudding against our helmets while an invisible enemy shot at us from distant tree lines.

Weeks of bottled-up tensions would be released in a few minutes of orgiastic violence, men screaming and shouting obscenities above the explosions of grenades and the rapid, rippling bursts of automatic rifles.

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Read the excerpt from Dispatches.Because, really, what a choice there was; what a prodigy of things to be afraid of! The moment that you understood this, really understood it, you lost your anxiety instantly. Anxiety was a luxury, a joke you had no room for once you knew the variety of deaths and mutilations the war offered.The purpose of the paradox in the excerpt is to

illustrate the narrator’s desire to relieve his uneasiness.

reinforce the physical and emotional challenges of war.

show that indulgences are stolen during war, not provided.

highlight the idea that fear can be viewed in different ways.

Read the excerpt from Dispatches. The far side of the hills around the bowl of the base was glimmering, but you could never see the source of the light, and it had the look of a city at night approached from a great distance. Flares were dropping everywhere around the fringes of the perimeter, laying a dead white light on the high ground rising from the piedmont. There would be dozens of them at once sometimes, trailing an intense smoke, dropping white-hot sparks, and it seemed as though anything caught in their range would be made still, like figures in a game of living statues. There would be the muted rush of illumination rounds, fired from 60-mm. mortars inside the wire, dropping magnesium-brilliant above the NVA trenches.The sensory details in the excerpt evoke a sense of

awe and wonder.

confusion and disgust.

hope and strength.

surprise and excitement.

Which excerpt from Dispatches is an example of paradox?

And at night it was beautiful. Even the incoming was beautiful at night, beautiful and deeply dreadful.

One hit anywhere in the chopper would bring you back, bitten lips, white knuckles and all, and then you knew where you were.

At night you could lie out on some sandbags and watch the C-47’s mounted with Vulcans doing their work.

At night in Khe Sanh, waiting there, thinking about all of them (40,000, some said), thinking that they might really try it, could keep you up.

Which excerpt from Dispatches contains imagery that evokes a sense of helplessness and inevitability?

Sometimes you’d step from the bunker, all sense of time passing having left you, and find it dark out. The far side of the hills around the bowl of the base was glimmering, but you could never see the source of the light, and it had the look of a city at night approached from a great distance.

One hit anywhere in the chopper would bring you back, bitten lips, white knuckles and all, and then you knew where you were.

Nights were when the air and artillery strikes were heaviest because that was when we knew that the NVA was above ground and moving.

No wonder everyone became a luck freak, no wonder you could wake at four in the morning some mornings and know that tomorrow it would finally happen, you could stop worrying about it now and just lie there, sweating in the dampest chill you ever felt.

Read the excerpt from A Rumor of War. Weeks of bottled-up tensions would be released in a few minutes of orgiastic violence, men screaming and shouting obscenities above the explosions of grenades and the rapid, rippling bursts of automatic rifles.In this excerpt, the author uses imagery to describe

the soldiers’ feelings of fear.

the soldiers’ feelings of relief.

the chaos and frenzy of war.

the pain and anguish of war.

Read the excerpt from A Rumor of War. We left Vietnam peculiar creatures, with young shoulders that bore rather old heads.What is the author attempting to convey to the reader using sensory language?

Only old men were allowed to fight in the war.

Injuries caused veterans to age more quickly.

While their bodies were young, their minds were old.

Physical damage caused psychological damage.

Read the excerpt from A Rumor of War. The tedium was occasionally relieved by a large-scale search-and-destroy operation, but the exhilaration of riding the lead helicopter into a landing zone was usually followed by more of the same hot walking, with the mud sucking at our boots and the sun thudding against our helmets while an invisible enemy shot at us from distant tree lines. The paradox in the excerpt illustrates the idea that

danger could alleviate the monotony of war.

walking was often necessary after flying.

the soldiers could not see their enemies.

the heat was more difficult to overcome than the enemy.

Read the excerpt from A Rumor of War.By autumn, what had begun as an adventurous expedition had turned into an exhausting, indecisive war of attrition in which we fought for no cause other than our own survival.Based on the excerpt, the narrator

understands that he has a specific responsibility but is frightened to be a part of the war effort.

understands how important wars can be to a culture after he experiences one firsthand.

believes there are instances when violence is a necessary evil, despite its unpleasantness.

believes the reasons for fighting become muted over time and eventually all that matters is staying alive.

Which excerpt from A Rumor of War contains the best example of sensory language?

Having been among the first Americans to fight in Vietnam, I was also among the last to be evacuated, only a few hours before the North Vietnamese Army entered the capital.

America seemed omnipotent then: the country could still claim it had never lost a war, and we believed we were ordained to play cop to the Communists’ robber and spread our own political faith around the world.

The discovery that the men we had scorned as peasant guerrillas were, in fact, a lethal, determined enemy and the casualty lists that lengthened each week with nothing to show for the blood being spilled broke our early confidence.

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Vietnam Literary Journalism Answers

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