SSRJ #3 I am the grass... by D. Walker

This time I picked the story by D. Walker for several reasons. First I thought that the introduction of the story was written to capture the reader’s attention, and it did. The mood of the story lasted throughout the entire plot. I never really knew what was going to happen next. I was sort of relieved when nothing catastrophic happened. I kept on thinking that the narrator would have a flashback to the war and do something crazy. That was not the case in the end, quite the opposite actually. He felt regret for his actions and tried to the best of his ability to help a “former enemy”. The story gathered momentum nicely and had a good flow. The couple of things that really stood out to me were the flashbacks and the use of the grass as a symbol. When I was reading the title and then the story I was confused on how "grass" has anything to do with the story. As i read on "grass" became a symbol for “healing” and “cover-up” of the past. The flashbacks gave the story a purpose by showing the narrators inner feelings. By knowing his background we can see how difficult it would be to revisit the places which haunted his thoughts after he came back from the war. “After I was discharged from the Army, I went home to Chicago and hung around there for a couple of years, haunted by memories and nameless faces” (326). The part about the grass I did not fully understand until the very end when I finished the whole story and read the full poem by Carl Sandburg. Then all of a sudden everything tied in and made a final point. Even though the story ends with the Dinh’s hopes being shattered and his concept of life revolving in circles does not favor the outcome of the surgery. Even though the narrator was not personally involved in Dinh’s torture, he could not help but feel as though his wrong doings were somehow connected to this man’s troubles. “Because it is my nature, the fate of Dinh’s transplanted toe takes on a monumental importance”(336). Personally I had wished the story would end on a happy note with the thumb transplant working out well for Dinh. I was expecting that the whole time, since after all there has to be something good that comes out of the story. How different would the story be if the transplant took and the operation was a huge success? Would that change the way the narrator felt about his past or would it not have an impact one way or the other?