In the chapter "Spin", we get told about a young Vietnamese girl who is dancing in the midst of her burned down town. Throughout the very short chapter, Azar keeps asking "Why is she dancing?"(129). Why do you think the girl is dancing? What do you think it represents?
Isn't this episode in chapter "Style"? Anyway I think that she is dancing as a way to escape from reality and from what happened to her, that is the loss of her entire family. When the soldiers drag the family out of the house the girl "put the palms of her hands against her ears" (129): she doesn't want to have anything to do with what just happened, and by dancing she is trying to keep the pain away. I think that after such a trauma she has to hang on something that keeps her alive and that gives her a way to escape from reality and therefore from the truth of death. In fact it is said that "her face had a dreamy look, quiet and composed" (130) as if she was dreaming and completely in another world.
ReplyDeleteI did mean "Style". Thanks for catching that!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Vale. When the soldiers come to her village i was burned out, she was probably the only person left. Her parents and siblings were dead and all the horror she saw she tried to process through her dance. When the soldiers carried her the corpses out of the house she put her palms on her ears as if to keep away what was happening. She tried to isolate from the horror and her dance was supposed to take her mind away from what she probably saw earlier.
ReplyDeleteNah. I do not concur. I think the girl becomes psychologically disordered. The reason that the soldiers think that she was dancing is because the different perspectives of the War.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Vale and Kristina in that the girl was dancing because she wanted to escape from reality. Her house had burned down and her whole family died. To escape the sadness and pain she dances. I think this represents how horrible the war can be. But the girl dancing shows that there are ways to overcome the sadness and horror of the war.
ReplyDeleteI must agree with bruce. It seems that she has just gone crazy witnessing the horror of her entire village destroyed. She seems to have gone into post traumatic stress disorder attack where she cannot control her movements and she is practically having a mental seizure. I cannot fathom what impact this would have on a child. She saw her entire life burn and her family is gone. This could be an involuntary response to terror.
ReplyDelete