All Stems From "Rumor"

The American Vietnam War literature has greatly boosted the prosperity of American literature because it has produced many writers, some of whom are even among the greatest in contemporary American literature. Philip Caputo is listed among them. A Rumor of War is one of his most representative works, being valued as "a standard text on the Vietnam War". Its issue was focused among critics and readers. Some critics home and abroad just mentioned it in their research when discussing Vietnam War literary works, but hasn't researched it systematically. The thesis attempts to interpret the themes of A Rumor of War by analyzing the "rumor" of war through combining the historical and social backgrounds of the novel. The thesis consists of five chapters.The introduction is a brief survey of the Vietnam War, the Vietnam War literature, the Vietnam War writers, and the status of the Vietnam War in American literature. And then the thesis summarizes the novel A Rumor of War and its author as well as the novel in critics' eyes. Meanwhile, the purpose and the theme of the thesis are involved in it.Chapter One attempts to elaborate on the title of the thesis, mainly discussing the construction of a "rumor". Under the contexts of time, history and social background of the Vietnam War, the thesis deeply analyzes the three parts of constructing a "rumor", that is, patriotism, romanticism and heroism, to clarify the relationship between the "rumor" and the theme.Chapter Two focuses on illustrating how a "rumor" is deconstructed. The thesis elucidates four key points of deconstructing a "rumor", that is, reality, disillusionment, animalization and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It explains the inseparable relationship between deconstructing a "rumor" which is contrary to the constructing a "rumor" and the theme.Chapter Three is the development of the meanings of the first two chapters. It exposes the "rumor" after constructing and deconstructing a "rumor", and analyzes the relationship between the "rumor" and the purposes or reasons that the writer wrote the novel, thereby to be helpful to the analysis of the theme.The conclusion is the summary of all the chapters. It arouses readers to reflect the hurt and effects caused by the war and its "rumor" and proposes the significance of Vietnam War literature to the world comtemporarily.