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1825 Redefining AmericaKEY CONTEXT %u201cFatherland%u201d is set in Vietnam in 2001, twenty-six years after the United States withdrew from the Vietnam War. A long and divisive conflict involving multiple countries, the war lasted more than twenty years, ending with the fall of Saigon in 1975. The United States fought as an ally of South Vietnam against the Communist government of North Vietnam. Over 3 million people lost their lives, roughly twothirds of whom were Vietnamese civilians: more than 58,000 Americans, over 1 million North Vietnamese soldiers and Vietcong guerrilla fighters, between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers, and as many as 2 million total civilians. After the war ended with the fall of Saigon, the Communist government imprisoned many South Vietnamese men, such as Mr. Ly in %u201cFatherland,%u201d in %u201cre-education camps%u201d in what was called the New Economic Zone. In the story, Mr. Ly, who had been a successful businessman before the war, runs a tour company catering to American tourists; the tour includes a visit to tunnels the North Vietnamese guerrilla soldiers used during the war. KEY CONTEXT %u201cFatherland%u201d is set in Vietnam in 2001, twenty-six years after the United States withdrew It was a most peculiar thing to do. Everyone said so who heard the story, of how Phuong%u2019s father had named his second set of children after his first. Phuong was the eldest of these younger children, and for all her twenty-three years she had believed that her father%u2019s other children were much more blessed. Evidence of their good luck was written in the terse letters sent home annually by the first Mrs. Ly, the mother of Phuong%u2019s namesake, who recorded in bullet points each of her children%u2019s height, weight, and accomplishments. Phuong%u2019s namesake, for example, was seven years older, fifteen centimeters taller, twenty kilos heavier, and, from the photographs included with the letters, in possession of fairer, clearer skin; whiter, straighter teeth; and hair, clothing, shoes, and makeup that only became ever more fashionable as she graduated from a private girls%u2019 school, then from an elite college, followed by medical school and then a residency in Chicago. Mr. Ly had laminated each of the photographs to protect them from humidity and fingerprints, keeping them neatly stacked on a side table by the couch in the living room. The letters accompanying the photographs were the only communiqu%u00e9s that Phuong%u2019s family received about the children, for over the course of some twenty-seven years%u2019 absence, Phuong%u2019s namesake and her two younger brothers had never written a word themselves. And so, when the first such letter finally arrived, it was the cause of a great deal of excitement. The letter was addressed to Mr. Ly, who, as the plenipotentiary of the house, always took it upon himself to open the mail. He sat on the couch and slit the envelope carefully, using one of the few relics from his past he had managed to keep, a silver letter opener with an ivory handle. Flanking him were Phuong and her mother, while his two teenage sons, Hanh and Phuc, sat on the armrests and craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the words their father read out loud. The letter was even shorter than the ones written by the ex-wife, merely announcing that Phuong%u2019s half sister would be coming for a two-week vacation, and that she hoped to stay with them. %u201cVivien?%u201d Mrs. Ly said, reading the name signed at the bottom of the letter. %u201cIs she too good to use the name you gave her?%u201d But Phuong knew instantly why her sister had taken upon herself a foreign name, and whose name it must have been: Vivien Leigh, star of Gone with the Wind, her father%u2019s favorite film, as he had once told her in passing. Phuong had seen the film once, on a pirated videotape, The word %u201cnamesake%u201d refers to somebody who inspires the name given to someone else. Why do people typically share names? What is unusual about Phuong%u2019s relationship to her namesake?11Copyright %u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.