Vietnam+War

Resources
[|Australian Government site] gives an overview of the Vietnam war, Australia's involvement, and public attitudes at the time [|wikipedia entry] [|Vietnam Veterans Association]

Pulitzer Prize winning image taken by Trang Bang on June 8th, 1972, with Kim Phuc, the girl in the centre of the image.



Whole-Class Analysis
Examples of this are shown in quotes: “Woman’s constancy is like the Arabian Phoenix” p.71 “Only mad people in this day and age would do a work about love and infidelity” p.41 “Women are God’s punishment for men playing with themselves”
 * **Quote from the play about Vietnam War/Moratoriums etc (inc. page no.)** || **How does this show the character's views and values?** || **How does this show the author's views and values?** ||
 * ‘Love is not so important nowadays’ – Lewis, pg.10 ||  || Nowra's perspectives of love are;
 * -Ideas of love are perceived by the experiences people have of love.** Most of patients of the play seem to have a stronger understanding of love then the "sane" (Nick and Lucy). This could be because Nick and Lucy have a more privileged life.
 * -Men often believe that woman are only useful to satisfy their physical needs.**
 * -Nowra challenges the concept of free love** ||
 * ‘even the middle class will be radicalised by seeing how many of us are agains them. They’ll know that to be against the Vietnam War is also to be against the old fossilised government we now have. They’ll want the war to end, they’ll want changes in our society, they’ll want to overthrow the establishment.’ – Nick, pg. 17 ||  ||   ||
 * ‘Australians, especially young Australians of my age, are getting fed up with our society. We want changes and we want them now!’ – Nick, pg. 17 || Nick and Lucy represent the mostly young left wing activists who rebelled against the offical military commitment of their country supporting the Viet Cong. Nick think's he can change things with his questionable morals. We can also see his demanding and arrogant personality through this quote. || Nowra shows that the 1970s was a period when Australians were evaluating their place in the world, their alleginces and beliefs, and their relationships with global socitey. ||
 * ‘Australians are suspicious of rhetoric.’ – Lewis, pg. 17 ||  ||   ||
 * ‘She hates me doing an opera about love and fidelity while thousands of Vietnamese troops are being killed by American troops.’ – Lewis on Lucy, pg. 33 ||  ||   ||
 * ‘There’s a lot of organisation required in setting up a moratorium.’ – Nick, pg. 40 ||  ||   ||
 * ‘Only mad people in this day and age would do a work about love and fidelity. They’re definitely mad.’ – Nick, pg. 41 || This shows that Nick believes that there are more important things in 'this day and age' than love and fidelity. His vaules are shown closer to current affairs such as the vietnam war. ||  ||
 * ‘Here we are, supporting the Viet Cong and you’re laughing at their supporters, the Albanians.’ – Nick, pg. 46 ||  ||   ||
 * ‘Traitors! Traitors! Traitors!’ – Henry, pg. 46 ||  ||   ||
 * ‘Against American imperialism? Of course.’ – Lewis, pg. 47 ||  ||   ||
 * ‘It’s a place somewhere in Asia. There’s a war going on.’ - Ruth, pg. 47 ||  || This shows Nowra's and society's attitude towards mental illness and mental patients. Ruth and the other mental patients have no idea the extent of the war going on,as they have been totally excluded and neglected from society. It shows how isolated they are from the outside world how society have treated them. ||
 * ‘My fffffather fought in the war for you. For you and ffffor me. He was a great man. You are traitors.’ – Henry, pg. 47 || This shows Henrys strong biased opinion on how he believes the war is for a good purpose. Henrys father fought in the war and he believes his father was a brave and heroic man. Because of this, Henry is extremely patriotic to his country due to the fact his own father fought to protect it. Therefore he is pro war in sending troops to defend Australia. ||  ||
 * ‘Australia is at war with communists and you…sssstab my father in the back.’ – Henry, pg. 47 ||  ||   ||
 * ‘I’m not putting up with this right wing crap.’ – Nick, pg. 47 || Shows that Nick is insensitive towards the paitents, not caring about Henry's opinion and is confident in him, treating the patients as cliched 'crazy' people ||  ||
 * ‘I am against this war, but I am not supporting the enemy. We must support any way of getting Australia and America out of this quagmire.’ – Lewis, pg. 48 || This quote shows Lewis' open minded and understanding personality, he comparmises with Henry. Lewis' youthful and developing sense of self and his priorities showing a sense of "coming of age" that was occurring culturally in Australia during this period. ||  ||
 * ‘We don’t want to see Australian soldiers die in a meaningless war.’ – Lewis, pg. 48 || This shows the audience how Lewis truly feels about the war. Lewis feels like it is a 'meaningless war' implying that there is no point in Australians even fighting it, therefore he sees no reason for them to die over something so silly. || This quote could possibly show Nowras view through Lewis about the war and its meaning. If Nowra feels the same way as Lewis does about the war, it shows that he is against the war, just like many Australians were at the time. He feels like there is no point in sending Australians there to die in a war that really had no direct impact on Australia in the first place. ||
 * ‘It is a war with meaning. It is to stop communism.’ – Henry, pg. 48 || This shows Henry has strong beliefs that the war in Vietnam does have a purpose within all the range. Henry believes that communism needs to be stopped in Vietnam and the only way of doing so is to have this war, to protect other countries in preventing them from being communist countries. ||  ||


 * " He says politics is the real theatre " - Lewis about Nick ||  ||