Youth and Disillusionment in the 60s

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the experiences of two youths, Tim O'Brien and Anne Moody, during the 1960s, and the profound affects Vietnam and the civil rights movements had respectively on their lives and outlooks. The author first describes the roots of youthful disillusionment at this time, citing the feeling of disenfranchisement, especially about Vietnam. Then, Tim O'Brien's book "If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home" is described in contrast to his upbringing. Anne Moody's book, "Coming of Age in Mississippi" is also discussed in terms of life in the South for an African-American woman. Both these works exemplify the social upheaval of the time.

From the Paper:

"Then, in the summer of 1968, it was "a good time for talking about war and peace," and Minnesota's Eugene McCarthy, and United States Senator, was getting votes; "Lyndon Johnson was almost forgotten," O'Brien writes on page 16. Johnson was "no longer forbidding or feared" and Senator Robert Kennedy was dead "but not quite forgotten" while Nixon "looked like a loser." About that time, O'Brien received an induction notice, and the summer of 1968, prior to his entrance into the military, but while he knew he would indeed be in the military, he and friends would drive around the lake in his hometown, "talking about the war... [covering] all the big questions: justice, tyranny, self-determination, conscience and the state, God and war and love" (17). "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Moody, Anne. Coming of Age in Mississippi. New York: The Dial Press, 1968.
• O'Brien, Tim. If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home. New York: Broadway Books, 1975.

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