Viet Thanh Nguyen Summary

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American professor and novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen once said, “All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory.” For the duration of this English unit, our class has read various pieces of literature that reflect Nguyen’s statement as well as the question, Why do we need war stories? Specifically, we can see it in Veteran Wonders: How Will PTSD Affect My Kids? by Brooke King, Spin by Tim O’Brien, and Facing It by Yusef Komunyakaa. These three compositions provide various examples of the effects that war has on veterans after they leave the service. First, through the work of Brooke King, we can experience the effects and trauma that war leaves on veterans. Work, Veteran Wonders: How Will PTSD Affect My Kids? by Brooke …show more content…
I have also noticed my children having emotional responses,triggers, to things or events that they have never witnessed. My children have witnessed me suffering from flashbacks many times” (King 2). This is significant because there are clear signs her personal trauma is affecting her household. It relates to what Nguyen was saying, because even after fighting the war, she is forced to live through those experiences now in memory. This memory is creating a great impact on her children; later in the piece, she says how she clearly made her trauma part of their lives. Following this, we can see the aftermath of service in Spin by Tim O’Brien. In the book, The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien wrote a short story where he fictionalized his experiences, and “Tim”, who narrates the story, is writing about his involvement in the war. Specifically, he talks about how he is writing all these things, even after so many years. In particular, Tim narrates, “I feel guilty sometimes. Forty-three years old and I’m still writing war
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