Mason, Bobbie Ann: *1940

In Country, 1985 - Chapter Summaries

The chapters are grouped into manageable sections.
Part One
Chapters 1–2
Sam, her uncle Emmett, and her paternal grandmother, Mamaw Hughes, travel from Kentucky to Washington, D.C., to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Sam is seventeen and has recently graduated from high school, while Emmett is a Vietnam veteran who has struggled to adjust to civilian life. Their journey is uncomfortable because Sam's Volkswagen has transmission problems, and Mamaw is not used to travelling far from home. During the trip, Sam thinks about her father, Dwayne, who died in Vietnam before she was born.
Chapters 3–4
The three travellers stop at a motel and discuss their family history and what their lives might have been like if Dwayne had survived. Mamaw imagines that Dwayne would have stayed close to home and raised a family with Sam's mother, Irene. Sam finds this difficult to imagine because she has grown up without her father and wants a different kind of life. When the car finally breaks down, they stay at another hotel, where Sam begins to feel nervous about reaching Washington and confronting her father's death.
Part Two
Chapters 1–2
After graduating from high school, Sam reflects on her life with Emmett and remembers how he changed after returning from Vietnam. Emmett has difficulty keeping a job, avoids talking about the war, and spends much of his time at home. Sam and Emmett regularly watch MASH* together, which gives Sam a way to think about war and soldiers. During a thunderstorm, Emmett becomes visibly frightened, revealing how deeply his wartime experiences still affect him. At Cawood's Pond, he tells Sam that seeing white egrets in Vietnam was one of his few happy memories of the country.
Chapters 3–4
Sam visits her best friend Dawn, and they discuss relationships, marriage, and their uncertain futures. Sam worries that Emmett's health problems may be connected to Agent Orange, a chemical used during the Vietnam War. She tries to encourage him to get help, but he avoids dealing with his problems. When Sam accompanies Emmett to McDonald's, she meets several of his veteran friends and tries to ask them about Vietnam. They are reluctant to discuss their experiences, but Tom Hudson offers to sell her his Volkswagen.
Chapters 5–6
Sam argues with her mother, Irene, because she believes Irene has abandoned Emmett by moving to Lexington and starting a new family. Irene explains that she spent fourteen years looking after Emmett and now wants to live her own life. Sam continues to worry about Emmett and tries to understand why he behaves so strangely. Meanwhile, Emmett becomes obsessed with repairing the house's foundation. His veteran friend Jim Holly helps him with the problem, showing that Emmett still has people who care about him.
Chapters 7–8
Sam visits Anita Stevens, Emmett's former girlfriend, and learns more about their past relationship. Anita explains that Emmett ended their relationship partly because he felt socially inferior to her and did not believe he deserved her. Sam encourages Anita to attend an upcoming veterans' dance and hopes that they might reconnect. At home, Sam looks at the photograph of her father and imagines talking to him about her life, demonstrating how strongly she wants to know the man she never met.
Chapters 9–10
Sam, Emmett, and Lonnie travel to Paducah so Emmett can see a doctor about his health concerns. The doctor does not take Emmett's worries about Agent Orange seriously, leaving him frustrated and embarrassed. Sam becomes increasingly interested in Tom and hopes he will tell her about his experiences in Vietnam. Tom refuses to discuss the war, explaining that many veterans would rather forget what happened. He nevertheless takes Sam for a drive in the Volkswagen, and she begins to develop romantic feelings for him.
Chapters 11–12
Sam and Dawn visit Kmart, where Dawn admits that she thinks she is pregnant. Sam helps her buy a pregnancy test because Dawn is embarrassed. The possibility of Dawn becoming a mother makes Sam think more seriously about relationships, sex, and responsibility. Meanwhile, Sam continues thinking about Tom and becomes increasingly frustrated when Lonnie's family criticizes Emmett and dismisses the possibility that Agent Orange caused his health problems.
Chapters 13–15
Sam becomes more involved with the veterans' community and continues trying to understand Emmett's behaviour. She attends a veterans' dance, where Emmett has an opportunity to reconnect with other people and meet Anita. Sam's own feelings about Tom become more complicated as she tries to move beyond her relationship with Lonnie. She begins to realize that growing up involves making decisions that may disappoint other people.
Chapters 16–18
Sam's interest in Tom grows, and she spends time with him while trying to learn more about his experiences in Vietnam. She hopes that becoming physically closer to him will also help her understand the war. However, Tom's emotional and physical difficulties reveal that his experiences have affected his ability to form intimate relationships. Sam begins to recognize that the veterans' problems are much more complicated than she previously understood.
Chapters 19–20
After the veterans' dance, Emmett does not return home, and Sam becomes increasingly worried about him. She wonders whether he has gone to be with Anita and whether he might finally be developing a relationship with someone. At the same time, Dawn confirms that she is pregnant but has not yet told her boyfriend, Ken. Sam thinks about the consequences of the war and the different ways people's lives have been affected by it.
Chapters 21–23
Emmett is still missing, and Sam becomes increasingly anxious about where he has gone. She visits her maternal grandparents, who discuss Emmett's behaviour and how much Hopewell has changed since the Vietnam War. Eventually, Irene arrives with Emmett, explaining that he has travelled to Lexington with Jim Holly. Sam is relieved but frustrated that Emmett refuses to explain what happened. Irene tries to encourage Sam to think about her future rather than spending all her time worrying about Emmett.
Chapters 24–25
Irene and Sam have a serious conversation about their family and the past. Irene explains that she spent years caring for Emmett after the war and wants Sam to have the opportunity to attend college and build her own life. She also reveals that her marriage to Dwayne was short and that she had been in love with one of Emmett's friends. Sam struggles to accept that her parents' relationship was not the romantic love story she imagined. Irene gives Sam money to buy a car, and Sam later discovers letters that Dwayne wrote from Vietnam. The letters reveal that Dwayne was excited about becoming a father and had chosen Sam's name.
Chapters 26–28
Sam breaks up with Lonnie because she no longer wants the future he expects them to have together. She is frustrated that nobody will explain what happened in Vietnam, and Emmett finally admits that he wants to forget the war because he saw too much. Sam visits her paternal grandparents to learn more about Dwayne, and Mamaw gives her his diary. When Sam reads it, she discovers that her father participated in violent acts and sometimes seemed proud of killing the enemy. This shocks her because she had imagined him as a heroic figure and never considered the reality of what he experienced.
Chapters 29–30
Unable to cope with what she has discovered, Sam leaves home and spends the night at Cawood's Pond, imagining that she is in the Vietnamese jungle. She wants to experience something similar to what her father and Emmett experienced during the war. The following morning, Emmett finds her and becomes furious because he feared she might be dead or seriously injured. They argue about the diary, and Emmett finally describes a horrifying experience from Vietnam in which he survived by hiding beneath the body of a dead soldier. He breaks down emotionally and admits that the war left him feeling damaged and unable to live a normal life. Sam comforts him and reminds him that he is still capable of caring for other people.
Part Three
Chapter 1
The story returns to the road trip to Washington, D.C., where Sam, Emmett, and Mamaw are travelling to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Sam reflects on everything that happened at Cawood's Pond and realizes that the experience affected her almost as deeply as it affected Emmett. She now understands that she cannot simply imagine what it was like to fight in Vietnam. Before reaching Washington, the family visits Irene in Lexington, where Sam shares what she has discovered about Dwayne. She is also more understanding of her mother's decisions and begins to repair their relationship.
When they finally reach the memorial, Sam and Mamaw search for Dwayne's name on the wall. Mamaw climbs a ladder to touch her son's name, and Sam does the same. Sam then looks through the directory and discovers another name that matches her own. This makes her reflect on her identity and her connection to the soldiers who died in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Emmett searches the wall for the names of his friends. He eventually sits in front of the memorial and smiles, suggesting that he has found something meaningful in remembering those he lost.