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Chapter 34
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Women, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma, Healing, and the Vietnam War
Women’s Experiences and Solidarity
Heroism, Honor, and Sacrifice
Propaganda vs. Truth
Shame, Pride, and Moral Ambiguity
Summary
Analysis
In September 1982, Frankie receives an invitation to the 36th Evac Hospital staff reunion in honor of the new Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. Frankie is angry that the veterans’ sacrifices are just now being recognized, especially given the war’s ongoing harmful effects. The herbicide used to kill jungle vegetation has been discovered to cause cancer and miscarriages. Even now, the government remains indifferent: veterans built this memorial. Donna appears. She’s another Vietnam nurse, and she’s lived on the ranch with Frankie for seven years. The women met through the VA. After Frankie’s nursing license was reinstated, she and Donna both earned degrees in clinical psychology. Donna and Frankie’s other friends and family have helped her fix up the ranch.
The novel jumps ahead a significant number of years. The shame Frankie once felt about her participation in the war has now turned to anger at the government’s persistent mistreatment of its military. Aside from PTSD, many Vietnam veterans experienced long-term health problems, and it’s implied that it was likely the herbicide used in Vietnam that caused Frankie’s miscarriage. The American government has made no move to atone for these atrocities: even the memorial was erected by veterans, proving again that they alone understand one another.
Themes
After earning their counseling degrees, Frankie and Donna posted signs at the VA inviting other women who served in Vietnam to join them. The ranch, called the “Last Best Place,” has become a temporary home for many women veterans. The work reignites Frankie’s passion. She and Donna run rap sessions (group therapy) to help women cope. Now, Donna tells Frankie the current group is ready. There is much talk of the memorial. Frankie admires her home, which features its own heroes’ wall filled with photos and is titled “THE WOMEN.” The ranch’s bunkhouses act as dorms for the women, and there are seven horses in the barn, which is where she is heading now.
Frankie and Donna set out to help their specific community: nurses who served in Vietnam. Counseling work, which helped Frankie heal, now fills her with purpose. The ranch provides a space for women to gather and support one another in community, validating the traumatic experiences which most of the country has tried to ignore. In erecting her own heroes’ walls dedicated to the women who served in the war, Frankie affirms the worth of her and other women’s service independent of male approval or official government records.
Themes
Four women wait for Frankie in the barn, seated in a semicircle. Frankie opens the session by telling them about her reunion invitation. Some of them have received similar notes. One woman angrily insists she doesn’t want to remember Vietnam, while one who is crying insists they should go to pay their respects. Frankie validates their sense of being forgotten as Vietnam vets and women. Despite her suffering, Frankie still considers her years in Vietnam some of the “best of my life.” One woman remarks that the memorial will only honor the men. Frankie understands and affirms this pain. She believes they can get better by reminding one another they aren’t alone.
The women in the barn display reactions familiar to Frankie because they share similar experiences. This makes Frankie uniquely able to help them process their trauma. In this session, Frankie acknowledges the strange ambiguity of Vietnam, where Frankie took pride in her service and grew as a nurse, but also witnessed and experienced much suffering. She suggests that, in many circumstances, two contradictory things can be true: they can be rightfully angry that the memorial excludes women, and they can grieve the lost men.
Themes
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In November, Frankie wakes in D.C., having traveled there for the memorial’s dedication. She’s brought many mementoes from Vietnam, including her hat, fatigues, and ANC pin. She is determined to remember instead of forget. Some years ago, Mom finally asked to see Frankie’s photographs and hear her stories. Now, Frankie journals about Finley, whose name will be on the memorial, and speculates if any generation after hers will believe in “the American myth of equality and justice and honor.” Barb and Ethel arrive at Frankie’s motel room. They, too, are plagued by old memories. The women wonder whether or not the dedication will be crowded. Frankie says it’s enough that the three of them are here.
Frankie decides to attend the memorial’s dedication, believing it supports her conviction to remember Vietnam rather than forget the terrible tragedy. Mom’s eventual willingness to hear Frankie’s stories proves that people can change and open themselves up to uncomfortable truths. Frankie feels that the Vietnam War exposed American values as a lie to everyone for the rest of time; she can no longer imagine future generations believing the country’s democratic propaganda with such historical evidence to the contrary. Barb, Ethel, and Frankie lean on one another to cope with the onslaught of painful memories. No longer concerned with public approval, Frankie insists that it is enough for veterans to acknowledge their own heroism, despite the controversy.
Themes
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The morning of the ceremony, Frankie dresses in her fatigues and finds Barb and Ethel, whose families will meet them at the memorial. Thousands of veterans line the streets, greeting one another with joyful camaraderie. Everyone falls silent when the parade reaches the National Mall, where a crowd of supporters are waiting. Frankie sends Barb and Ethel to find their families and approaches the black granite wall bearing over 58,000 names of those killed in Vietnam. A speaker notes the sacrifice of the fallen and the shameful welcome the veterans received. Now, he welcomes them home. As Frankie approaches the wall, Mom and Dad appear, surprising her. Together, they find Finley’s name. Frankie feels a sense of closure.
Frankie processes with Barb and Ethel, finally taking pride in their service as women. The presence of non-veteran supporters indicates that public opinion of the war has become more nuanced, and more people understand that the soldiers were more often victims of governmental abuse than willing perpetrators of atrocities. The speaker acknowledges the injustice Vietnam veterans have suffered at the hands of their government and community, and he expresses hope that the memorial’s acknowledgement of sacrifice can help heal that wound. That Mom and Dad have come for the ceremony is shocking given their former reluctance to mention Vietnam, and this shows they have also grown in the intervening years.
Themes
Another veteran taps Frankie on the shoulder and asks if she was a nurse. Seeming to remember her, he holds her hand and thanks her. Seeing tears in Dad’s eyes, Frankie reassures him that Finley loved his service, and he shouldn’t feel guilty. But Dad feels greater guilt for how he treated Frankie when she came home. Finally, he recognizes her heroism and apologizes. Frankie says she is proud of her service, even if the war was wrong. She senses Dad wants her forgiveness, but she delays that for now: this is her moment. Frankie leaves Mom and Dad, walking along the wall where people are leaving mementoes.
Frankie’s interaction with the veteran confirms that she did, indeed, make a difference in Vietnam. At last, Dad acknowledges that Frankie is a hero and apologizes for his mistreatment of her, bringing her even more closure. Frankie has reflected enough to declare that—despite the war’s wrongness—she no longer feels ashamed of her military service. Inhabiting this morally grey area allows Frankie to take pride in herself and heal rather than hold herself and the world to impossible ethical standards.
Themes
Frankie is looking for Jamie’s name when she hears someone say “McGrath.” The veteran is scarred and has a prosthetic leg—it’s Jamie. He embraces her, and Frankie remembers that first dance in the O Club. Jamie still has the stone Franke put in his bag telling him to fight. Remembering her got him through his injuries and the aftermath. Jamie is divorced and has a daughter named Frances. Frankie is glad they’re here together now, among other survivors, remembering what they went through. She knows she will find a way to tell the country about her sisters, how “We were there.”
Frankie’s reunion with Jamie is bittersweet: they have both been through a lot since their last encounter. That Jamie took solace in Frankie’s words and named his daughter after her suggests some part of him still loves her. For the moment, Frankie doesn’t consider the future: it is enough to stand in solidarity with other veterans and acknowledge those who remain forgotten for the time being: the heroic women who served.
Themes
