War

The central theme of this novel is the idea of war and what happens to boys after they come home from war. The book has characters with conflicting viewpoints about life after war, during war and what kinds of benefits the veterans should have once they return home.

The Vietnam vets in this town stick together, meeting every morning for breakfast at McDonalds. The characters readers are introduced to have all been affected severely from the war—either physically or mentally. However, there is mention of other people in the story who are vets and they turned out just fine, but beyond a mention readers don’t get a sense this is really the case.

Sam is frustrated so little is being done to help the vets get their lives back together, especially when some of them have financial burdens from medical bills and medical problems in general...