Comparing The Return And A Marker On The Side Of The Boat

Coping And Accepting Change Nothing in this world is permanent, changes are brought into our lives and how we deal with it depends upon ourselves. Whether we accept it or not, changes affect who we are in the future. Both Kamau in The Return and the narrator in A Marker on the Side of the Boat portray how they dealt with changes around them as a result of a war that occurred in their beloved home places. Their passive decision to accept reality lead to a positive outcome that has not made their lives miserable, but instead those depraved memories remain as an experience to move on and find more meaning with life. In the short story, The Return, Kamau contemplates and distinguishes the considerable amount of changes that seem to have developed while he was far away from his
When the B-52’s attacked, Kien made the mistake of taking the woman out of her house and trying to get both of them safely to a shelter. He also used a trolley as a mental marker of where her house was so he would be able to find her after. Later on after the attack was over, Kien went to help others who were hurt and told the woman to go and he would meet her at her home. After all that Kien realized and mournfully regretted everything he had done. All in all Kien regretted leaving the woman to help the others; he now had no way to find her. He forever regretted the decisions he made that day and worst of all he lost the one he loved. To this day, the narrator shares that he travels back to the same street in Hanoi to find the house where this young Vietnamese woman had tended for him. He hopes to someday spot the exact location and despite the impossible, identify that beautiful young lady he had met decades