The Vietnam War and Genre's Impact on Our Opinion of It

The Vietnam War era was one of the most controversial time periods in the history of the United States. Protests, bombings in colleges, Woodstock, and broadcasting real footage of our boys in Vietnam were all part of the experience that was the Vietnam War. Genre can make a big impact on the way we look at different things in our lives, and the Vietnam War is no different.

Probably the genre with the most influence on this time period is music. There are almost countless songs about the war, both protesting and approving it. "Goodnight Saigon" by the great Billy Joel paints a true picture of what life was like for a soldier in Vietnam. Men went into Vietnam "spastic, like tameless horses" and left "in plastic, as numbered corpses." This song really changes the way civilians think about the war. It tells about brotherhood and bravery, saying "we'd all go down together" in the chorus. The lyrics to "Goodnight Saigon" can be found here: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/b/billy_joel/goodnight_saigon.html

Movies can also change the way we think about things. Inception modifies how we percieve dreams. Titanic shows us how financial class makes no difference to cupid, and how that love can be strong enough to last after someone dies. The Star Wars series of movies tells us the story of how one man let his emotions kill everyone near and dear to him, but he made the right decision before his only son was killed. Movies do the same thing for our opinion on Vietnam. Jacob's Ladder is the story of a soldier's return home after serving in Vietnam. He suffers through psychological trauma from a drug he was given, and he becomes almost deranged. The Wikipedia page for the movie is located here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob's_Ladder_(film. This movie makes us think if other soldiers were part of weird experiments to make them suffer from the trauma they suffer, and makes us feel resentment for the government if they did. This is a U.S. fovernment protest movie at its finest.

Novels can also change us. Uncle Tom's Cabin changed the way people thought about slavery throughout the world. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers is the story of a black teenager and his tour of duty in an all-black squad in Vietnam. The story deals with the main character's emotions while fighting. He feels sorrow for the enemy he's fighting, because they are someone's father, brother, son, husband, or friend. It changed the way I thought about our enemies in Vietnam. They weren't evil, just the government that controlled them was. They were just poor, regular farmers forced to fight in order to survive. Here's the Barnes & Noble page for Fallen Angels: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Fallen-Angels/Walter-Dean-Myers/e/9780590409438/

Writing as a Metaphor

There are many metaphors, similes, comparisons, and contrasts that people have used to describe what writing is to them. For me, writing is like sports, like the big game that everyone will be tuning in to watch. If you don't enter the game with a game plan, you aren't going to be very successful. The same goes with writing. If you come to the blank page with nothing to write about, then your writing isn't going to be very good.

Sports are all about preparation and practice. Those who practice and prepare hard will play hard on game day, and those who don't, won't. Those who play hard win, and those who don't--well, there's only one option left! Writing is the same way. You have to prepare for your writing by doing prewriting and research to back up your opinions, which gives more life to your writing. You also have to practice writing by keeping a journal or a blog, among other things.

Improving the mistakes you make is another part of sports. Learning from your mistakes is an important part of becoming a better athlete. Just the same goes for authors. Writers will make mistakes. There's no denying that. No writers' first edition of a novel or work is perfect. It goes through hours of editing and revision to make the final copy.

Writing is like many different things to many different people, but for me it's like a sport. Coming out with a plan, preparation and practice, and correcting mistakes are all important parts of writing, as they are in sports as well.