https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un en-us 2022-11-02 17:29:06 UTC 2025-09-26 13:16:55 UTC hello@padlet.com malinidesai21 https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367105204 Description: Quan's brother is born when Quan is eight years old, and he distinctly remembers his brother's red little hands and kicking feet in the water. 

Significance: This memory is repeatedly referenced in the book by Quan. He has strong ties to his brother and mother, and their relationships are consistent themes throughout the book that reveal Quan's longing and desire for his family.]]> 2022-11-02 17:32:49 UTC https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367105204 malinidesai21 https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367106520 Description: Huge celebration and ceremony in town. Quan is filled with optimism and pride for fighting for his country. He is hopeful that his brother will not have to enlist and he has a cinematic moment with Hoa where they promise to remain faithful to each other.

Significance: Shows contrast between thoughts of the war before and after fighting. It also demonstrates the changes in both Quan and Hoa and their next meeting.]]> 2022-11-02 17:33:39 UTC https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367106520 malinidesai21 https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367107364 Description: Luy accidentally shot his fellow soldier Phien while out hunting, mistaking him for an orangutan. Quan hides this to avoid Luy being killed. His unit wanted to eat the orangutan because of starvation, but Quan couldn't help but think it resembled a human too much, and he didn't want to. 

Significance: The birth of Quan's brother is again referenced, specifically his little hands and how they resemble the orangutan. In this scene, Quan also deals with peer pressure from his unit, who all want to eat the "orangutan" except for him, but Quan still wants to show his leadership over the group.]]> 2022-11-02 17:34:13 UTC https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367107364 malinidesai21 https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367108419 Description: Upon arriving to where his buddy is being held up, Quan witnesses the total desperation of his friend who is willing to go to any lengths to fake mental illness and avoid combat. He is willing to roll around in barbed wire to avoid. After getting Bien alone, it becomes very clear that Bien is faking mental illness completely. When told to leave and go home, Bien refuses and says he does not want to go home and be shamed for the rest of his life.

Significance: This shows the absolute desperation to get out of participating in the war but the inability to make that choice. Men would rather cause themselves harm than to go onto the battle field or get sent home in shame.]]> 2022-11-02 17:34:56 UTC https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367108419 malinidesai21 https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367109150 Description: Quan is allowed to take leave to see his childhood friend Bien who is thought to be crazy. On the journey, he is guided by a comrade who takes him though forests destroyed by agent orange, and Quan is able to see a large extent of the destruction caused by the war. He ends up getting shelter at an underground outpost where Quan is tended to by an objectively ugly woman. There, he sees a storage facility of the packs of dead soldiers and sees a can that he had given to his guide when they departed. That night, the woman propositions Quan and becomes distraught when Quan refuses her advances. He departs and becomes lost in the "Seven Innocents forest." There, he has an existential crisis and comes across a skeleton who had created a tomb for himself in a hammock. Quan recovers the man's pack and makes a promise to return the pack to the soldier's mother. eventually, Quan escapes and gets nursed back to health by a young girl and her grandfather before completing his journey.

Significance: This forced Quan to face the atrocities of the war and to see how the full extent of the damage from the war. He has many opportunities of self reflection and his disillusionment of the war.]]> 2022-11-02 17:35:25 UTC https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367109150 malinidesai21 https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367110764 Description: After visiting Bien, Quan begins his journey back home. He sees his father living in squalor, he visits Luong's family, and he learns that his younger brother, Quang, was killed. When visiting Bien's family, Bien's father tells Quan that Hoa, his childhood sweetheart, is pregnant and living outside the village as an outcast. 

Significance: On his way home, Quan continues to think of his mother (especially when he sees his father). After returning home after so many years away, Quan realizes how much things have changed, from his family, his relationship with Hoa, and even himself. ]]> 2022-11-02 17:36:25 UTC https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367110764 malinidesai21 https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367112331 Description: When two higher ranking communist officials, they bad mouth Communism and, in particular, those who believe in it and follow it blindly. When called out for this, they pull rank to intimidate those who have called them on their behavior ultimately proving their initial point.

Significance: Quan gets to see first hand the hypocrisy in the communist party while seeing these two terrible men who are wealthy and well fed surrounded by those who are poor and suffering only further angering him about the war in general.]]> 2022-11-02 17:37:22 UTC https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367112331 malinidesai21 https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367113811 Description: Quan makes it to the special unit where he meets back up with childhood friends. When there he realizes that the special unit actually makes coffins and then sleep in them to protect themselves from the environment.

Significance: The special unit is under great pressure to meet the need/demand for coffins created by the war emphasizing the volume of death and loss brought about by the war.]]> 2022-11-02 17:38:18 UTC https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367113811 malinidesai21 https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367116277 The unit won red star battle and they were were celebrating and someone got stabbed. After this victory, it was downhill for a while and the unit lost hundreds of men. After a while there were down to the last 12 men. 

Significance: The war is taking a toll on everyone fighting on both sides. While the vietcong is winning, it doesn't seem like it when they are loosing almost all of their men.]]> 2022-11-02 17:39:53 UTC https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367116277 malinidesai21 https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367117283 Description: When Quan hears gunfire, he rushes outside to see that some soldiers are destroying American medicine. He confront the leader, Kha, and Kha questions the entirety of the Marxist ideology and why the North Vietnamese are fighting in the first place. Quan doesn't punish him, but he is angry with Kha for vocalizing his thoughts, even though he agrees with him. 

Significance: This conversation fuels the fire for Quan's doubt about communism and the North Vietnamese. He believes everything Kha says, and even though he verbally denounces it, his ideas still resonate with him. ]]> 2022-11-02 17:40:23 UTC https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367117283 malinidesai21 https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367119123 Description: With the war over, Quan’s company tries to deal with their final prisoners which are American journalists. While the entire company wishes to kill them, Quan forces the journalists to be spared and taken care of.

Significance: Even with the war over, the feelings of malice to the opposing forces have no yet let up. Quan even has a moment of anger and aggression to these people that were his direct enemies for so long. It is only when he calms down does he realize that these people are no longer his enemy and chooses to spare them and have them fed.]]> 2022-11-02 17:41:26 UTC https://padlet.com/malinidesai21/4fctn4o7tl0fk7un/wish/2367119123