Summary Of Defiance By Alvin Townley

One of the two books being compared in this essay is titled “Defiance” by Alvin Townley and was written in 2014. The other novel that was chosen for this essay was written in 1971 and is titled “Five Years to Freedom” it was written by James N. Rowe. These two books were focused on the capture and the treatment of American Prisoners of War during the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War started in 1954 and ended on April 30, 1975 totaling over twenty years. Each book has its idea of the incidents that happened and in “Defiance” there are several stories of a gang eleven American soldiers that was known famously as the Alcatraz Eleven. This essay will talk about the different accounts the American men endured and how each author sees the events

In the book written by Alvin Townley, Bob Shumaker who was an American Aviator was shot down and captured by the Vietcong and held in Hỏa Lò prison. Each American who walked through the door of the prison was given a Vietnamese name. In the other novel discussed, they are held by their captors at many different jungle camps that he repeatedly tried to escape from. The treatment of the prisoners was much more severe in “Defiant”, they were constantly quizzed for answers and if they did not answer they would be bound with rope with their hands behind their back and hung from the ceiling. The American prisoners had a Code of Conduct which never allowed them to spill the secrets of the U.S. government. In the book “Five Years to Freedom” the torture methods mentioned are quite different. Rowe is only held in his prison by bamboo cages and is in the jungle whereas the other book is an actual prison with many rooms. James Rowe is not pried for answers and is just simply a prisoner. He was only allowed to venture out forty yards during the day and he has the ability to set small traps to catch small game to supplement his daily rations of rice and. In the prison, they are not able to see the outdoors and definitely not fed. They are not handed water until they comply with what the Vietcong is asking of them. There is a quote in the book written by Townley that

Although the Alcatraz Eleven held out on the Vietcong’s’ questioning, they all inevitably gave in to the torture they were being submitted to. Rowe was submitted to many hardships along the way as well but was offered a surplus of freedoms compared to the gang in “Alcatraz”. In Alcatraz they are bound by their ankles every night in a three foot by nine foot cells with no windows. They found themselves in there based on their fierce efforts to escape the other camps they were imprisoned in. Rowe is bound only by a bamboo cage is allowed to roam during the day, fish and make money, and he even is given the privilege to own two