born on the fourth of july chapter 4 summary
The transformation that he undergoes from "love or leave it" patriotic to critic of the government is directly related to the dehumanization and abandonment he experiences in these hospitals. However, after the controversial Gulf of Tonkin incident on July 27, 1964, in which U.S. airmen mistakenly thought they were under attack from North Vietnamese forces, President Johnson signed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which elevated the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam and essentially started the war. Eddie Dugan had two plastic legs; Clasternack and Johnny Heanon died. Both the intensity and the personal view of life presented in Born on the Fourth of July are the book’s essential characteristics. Bombarded by media images that reinforced an anti-Communist ideology and perpetuated the myth of a noble and generous America, both Kovic and the country would go to Vietnam "believing it was a replay on a smaller scale of World War II: a struggle to defend democracy against aggression, which we surely would win, not only because we were more powerful but because the right was clearly on our side. Ron Kovic was born July 4, 1946. Appearing italicized, it is a great contrast to the shattering events of the pages immediately before. General Vo Nguyen Giap was the leader of the North Vietna…, More than fifty-eight thousand American soldiers and an estimated two million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were killed in the Vietnam War (1954–…, Westmoreland, William C. Kovic is confused by the difference between his experience and his expectation; no one is shouting or clapping as he thought they would be, like they did at his Little League games. After his father cleans him up and puts him to bed, Kovic feels "lost, more lost than he had ever been in his life.". 3, Spring 2000, p. 375. He gives a whole chapter to the drill sergeant yelling at them. As a young man raised in suburban Massapequa, Long Island, Kovic grew up hearing stories of bravery and valor from World War II veterans. After a section break, the perspective remains third person, but the setting shifts to Mexico. The battalion is gearing up for a serious offensive after a lull in combat activity. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. When he grew he joined the wrestling team and constantly won first place in competition. High school sports were important to young Kovic, and the death and funeral of President Kennedy traumatic. It changed the landscape of American public discussion and its international image. Making plans in the backyard for his future. Ron Kovic’s Born On The Fourth Of July: Summary & Analysis. "I feared the war, yes, but I also feared exile.…, Vo Nguyen Giap This event, as well as the realization that there were no guns in the village, as the lieutenant had thought, and that their confidence was entirely misplaced, cause the men of the unit to begin to break down. The language, as the movie ads say, is explicit, and may offend some readers. He registers for college classes and moves into an apartment, but two weeks into the semester he snaps his right thigh bone while exercising, and he has to go back to a VA hospital for the next six months. As the general pins the medal on each soldier, a private takes a photograph of the pinning as a souvenir for the family back home. In 1965, the first organized burning of draft cards was held. President Johnson increased the number of troops and bombings in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967, and protesters became more vocal in their opposition. In filthy wards with depressed men and the unspeakable stench of an enema room, Kovic tries balancing the romance of the hospital's location—"the place where Yankee Stadium was, where Mickey Mantle played"—with the fact that his feet will never again touch that grass. Even his cry of "I fought in Vietnam and I've got a right to be treated decently" is contested when one hospital aide retorts: "Vietnam don't mean nothin' to me or any of these other people. Kovic begins to feel guilt due to a retrieved memory, and he thinks that he could have prevented the death of a corporal. It is an incredible chapter, filled with do this and do that and grow up, be a man, mixed thoughts, confused feelings and fear. On October 15, 1969, a National Moratorium was held in Washington, D.C., and across the country in which hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took part in local and national demonstrations against the war. Ron Kovic is very able to get his point across to the reader. American Legion members from his hometown of Massapequa visit and tell him he is a hero, but "[i]t would seem to him that he was always having to cheer them up more than they were cheering him.
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