There are several essential questions that need to be asked in order to introduce this section -- “What exactly is the job of history and the historian? Does the historian only answer the questions
who, what, where, when, why, and how
of an event, and from whose point of view does this information flow? What does a fair and balance point of view mean? Do
story and voice
play essential roles in history? Does it matter who is relating the information? and How does one arrive at the truth of history?” These will be the questions we will wrestle with as we begin this part of the unit. It goes without saying that an entire academic course could be devoted to these questions and answers, but I plan on spending a full day having students work in groups to consider these ideas and come back together to list in their journals as much pertinent information as possible. From here, we will read the short story, “Stop the Sun” by Gary Paulsen.
In this story, Terry Erickson’s father is suffering from Vietnam syndrome. No one would talk about it and Terry could only find out a “dry” history with “nothing but numbers, cold numbers, and nothing of what had
happened.”
During a routine trip to the mall, Terry and his father split up to do separate errands. When his father fails to meet him at the designated entrance, Terry goes to the hardware store to see what the delay was. The image that he sees is burned into his mind and Terry wants to run away. Instead he moves into the store, finding his father squirming on the floor, crying, and panting like a hurt animal. What follows is a journey into the bowels of the Vietnam War. Terry’s father must try to explain to him how, during a military sweep, the Vietcong killed 54 of his fellow soldiers, how fear had consumed him, and how he thought if he could only stop the sun from rising, he might live.
Using this selection will definitely engage my students in discussion and development of questions investigating the time and place called Vietnam. Students will want answers to the 5 W’s: Who, What, Where, When, and Why. It would be hard to fully grasp the haunting memories Terry’s father endured without this all-important background information. My students will be guided back to the essential questions as they try to apply their listed ideas to the text. They should leave this text seeing the importance of considering the history behind the story as a layer of constructed meaning.
