Review of ​Why are We in Vietnam? by Norman Mailer

​Why Are We in Vietnam? by Norman Mailer is a novel about a teenager, DJ, on the eve of his enlistment into the Army, recounting a story where he traveled to Alaska to shoot a grizzly bear. His father had originally meant to go with someone else, but the guy had business to attend to and thus brought DJ and his friend, Tex, along with them. Additionally, during the expedition, they have two guides, and joining them are two “yes” men DJ calls Medium Assholes. Once the crew gets to Alaska, they first stay in a hotel where they prepare themselves and shoot the shit over drinks. Then, they arrive to their campsite which is a cabin and for the next few days go trekking. One of the Medium Assholes immediately shoots a wolf, but doesn’t kill it so they have to track it done. This causes the guides to enlist the help of a helicopter with their movements and hauling of animals. They shoot and kill a ram, and then they enlist the help of the helicopter to round up and scare a heard of ram. One time, after seeing a bear, DJ’s father, Rusty, gets the helicopter pilot to drop him down right in front of a bear, but the bear is too much and they have to scare it off. Another time, the guides set up the hunters to kill a bear, but they only injure it as it scampers away. After returning from a hunt, DJ and Rusty decide to break off from the group so that they can find a bear of their own. They do find a bear, with DJ getting the first shot, but then Rusty getting the final shot and claiming the prize. DJ becomes fed up with this and decides to get a bear of his own so brings Tex along with him for their search in the early morning. They avoid the helicopter looking for them and then they leave all their stuff in one area trying to one up the other as they hike up a ridge. Finally, when they return to their stuff, they set up camp and the Northern Lights come out. DJ believes the Northern Lights are God’s way of saying to kill things—anything. And thus, when they return from the hunt, two years later, DJ joins the Army to head into Vietnam.
 
Mailer has made me hate his genius in this novel. What’s most distinct about this novel is the brash, homophobic, anti-sematic, racist, hyper-sexual, hyper-masculine voice the main character and thus the 3rd person narrator displays. There are ‘N’ words thrown everywhere, tangents about fucking and women’s genitalia and masturbating, an Oedipus-like obsession of his father, and pretending that he’s a Black kid from Harlem, which immediately makes DJ unlikable. I can absolutely understand how inappropriate DJ both is and believes himself to be. He thinks he’s smart and slick with his wordplay, giving people nicknames and referencing Melville. It is unappealing, in part because (I hope) Mailer intended for DJ to be the crystallization of ‘hoorah’ masculinity, where violence and anger and sex are the defining characteristics of a man. Though, it is quite clear that DJ projects himself as this super manly man, when he’s trying to cover for his insecurities. In fact, every single man on the hunt tries to display their masculinity, while hiding their insecurities, in moments where for ten pages they compare and talk about what weapons they brought (the guns themselves a thinly-veiled analogy for DJ to talk about and compare dicks). The truth is, and maybe DJ gets a hint of this when he discusses them enlisting the help of the helicopter, “[The guide] was forever enough of a pro not to use [the helicopter] with real hunters, no, man, but he had us, gaggle of goose fat and asshole…” That the helicopter, the cabin, the guides were what could be seen as unmanly because they were not braving the elements. They had luxuries. They were glamping (in the “manly” way). What is possible then is that DJ recognizes this, which may have been why in the last portion of the novel removes his weapons (even his knife) when he and Tex went up the ridge. That DJ, and the other “hunters”, must compensate for feeling less of a man, and so become increasingly violent towards the animals.
 
The novel’s title may seem initially peculiar because they narrative doesn’t reside in Vietnam, and in fact only mentions it at the very end. However, it’s not hard to see that the book itself is answering the question it poses: Why are We in Vietnam? Well, because of these men, the people who view war as a hunt, the enemy as animals, and a need to project their power over the wilderness. The novel’s most direct parallel image lies in the helicopter, which was a prominent symbol and equipment used in Vietnam. We were in Vietnam because there was a prize to be had, and goddamnit, America wanted it—and wanted it through violence.
 
What I think is most striking about this novel is not its language or the sense of DJ’s imposing masculinity, but it’s in one of the final scenes. This is where DJ and Tex are sitting by a fire alone with the Northern Lights appearing above them. It is striking most notability in how the language changes. It shuts out the expletives, the sexual innuendos, the racism and focuses on the nature as a beauty. We get, just for a second, a crack in DJ’s ability to keep the masculinity front up. And personally, the whole novel felt like it was building up to this moment. With any other characters, this would become a romantic getaway where DJ and Tex embrace the sexual tension between them. DJ even presses his palm into Tex’s groin, but as we soon learn, this is not a sign of romance, but a sign of power. For context, earlier in the novel, DJ discusses Tex’s father as someone who would have sex with anything, and thus that was transferred over to Tex. What this meant was that DJ had thought that Tex would be the one, if anyone, to use his power over DJ to get him to have sex. Now, however, DJ realizes that power dynamic has flipped and he could, if he wanted to, fuck Tex. Thus, equating power and violence to sex. In that moment, what we get is DJ’s understanding of God telling him, “’Go out and kill—fulfill my will, go and kill’”, thus sealing away any part of DJ that was sensitive or had humanity. After, the language returns to its former crudeness, indicating that he is now a hardened American ready to kill in Vietnam.
 
For all of these reasons, I found the way it characterized the American psyche on sex, violence, and masculinity to speak to why we were in Vietnam, and in other wars. However, as with all media that represents hyper-masculinity, I’m sure the novel’s meaning and point has been completely misunderstood by others. I’m thinking here of how even though Fight Club is about being gay, many people only see it as about being tough. That is to say, people will be dazzled by its language and the crudeness, and not look under the hood to find a rat-infested engine. I can recognize the importance and talent of Mailer in this novel, and still hate it.
 
Final Rating: 2.5/5