What+it+is+all+about

Johnny was born while his father was serving as a Marine in Vietnam. By the time Johnny turned five, he had only seen his father once. His father returned from the war but never spoke of it. The only clues to this part of his fathers life were locked in three wooden boxes in the tool shed. At age 16, Johnny becomes interested in Vietnam and his fathers past. He secretly reads books about the war and, finally, takes the keys to the boxes from his fathers key ring. He learns from the content of the boxes that his father was tortured as a prisoner of war. Johnnys father catches him going through the last box. His father is obviously shocked and angry, but says nothing. Johnny's father talks about the war a little over the next four years before he dies. Johnny cherishes these moments with his father the most. In the story they talk about the three boxes the father owned, they symbolized the father wanting to keep the war a secret from his two sons. Then how Johnny's name changed from Charlie to Johnny, that symbolized how hard of a time the father had in the war. The theme:"Secrets will isolate you" is shown throughout the story by Johnny and his brother not knowing anything about their father and at the end when the father buries his hand in the ground shows how hes trying to buries his secrets by not showing his son. The conflicts in the story are man vs man:shows how the dad cant deal with the physcological problems that have happened in the war, and man vs society:shows that if vietnam wouldnt of happened the father wouldnt have the boxes that were filled with his secrets from the war.