Trip to Hanoi

In my reading of Trip to Hanoi I didn't know what to expect from the read. I knew it was going to be a journal and I knew it was going to be about a woman's trip to Vietnam, and that was exactly what I got. I feel bad for almost saying that this journal was somewhat predictable in my eyes in the sense of Sontag's renewed perspective of the country. Her attitude going into the trip was not to write about it and she expected a totally different experience and surprise (sarcastic), it wasn't quite what she imagined.

In beginning this story I was very put off by Sontag's initial feelings and attitudes towards the Vietnam. I know that she was ignorant in the sense of she did not know what to expect or what the people of the country were like, but during the beginning of her journal she kept referring to the Vietnamese as "child-like," and to be quite honest I felt her initial attitudes to be quite arrogant. Just because there is a cultural difference and barrier does not mean that the people of the country are child-like and simple. Or to be exact, she described that after being in the country for such a period of time when she interacted with someone of her own nationality it was as if they were talking baby-talk.

However, I do notice that the longer she stayed in Hanoi the more appreciation she aquired for the country and its people. On May 5th she distinctly talked about the physical differences of the people of Hanoi from Americans. She makes note of the fact that she dwells in the attention she gets from onlookers who notice the incredible height difference of Americans. Also the fact that the men of the country always looks 10 years younger than what they are, but yet we fall back into that arrogant style aura that I felt when reading her journal. Nevertheless, I believe a true change began taking shape when she realized that the people of Vietnam weren't angry with Americans just with the present government and to her surprise as would many would be, they even described Americans as being their friends. But their kindness could not be regarded as simple kindness but in the eyes of Sontag it was beautiful, in a child sort of way. However, as stated earlier in this post the reader starts to see a change in attitude and Sontag starts to pick up on some of the "key words" or some of the "unreservedly moralistic" ways to talking that the Vietnamese were accustomed to. She now refers to the Vietnam militia as "the front" instead of Viet Cong, and African American are now seen as "black people" instead of negros. Even later in her journal she refers to them as being "too generous" and while an honest and thoughtful statement that only makes me wonder what is to be said about the American public if the Vietnamese moralistic ways are too generous?

Still at the end of her journal we see that change that I so easily predicted. She got a first hand look into the lives and customs of the Vietnamese and learned to accept generosity and pondered that same question about what is to be said about "ours." Nevertheless, she expected to see an angry country and got a quite amiable one that were fighters and were just supporting their country just as the US did. Yet, the whole change comes at the end of the journal when she learns to have a higher appreciation for the people of Vietnam and have learned lessons that will not only play out in her memory but in her day to day interactions back at home in the USA.