Understanding Of Stop The Sun By Gary Paulsen

Understanding That We Cannot Understand
As humans we all want to understand everything that happens in the world around us. Either our friends are going through some drama or our family members are going through some hard times, we always want to know the who, what , where, when, why, and how. In the short story “Stop The Sun” by Gary Paulsen it's Terry, the main character, trying to figure out why his dad gets stuck in these nightmares or flashbacks while maintaining to be awake. Terry learns it was from the Vietnam war and that it was Vietnam syndrome that gave him that, but it took him until when he gets embarrassed in a hardware store to try to understand what causes this with his dad. He soon finds out that his dad experienced things

An example of this is when Terry found his dad at the hardware store on the floor the author describes Terry’s dad saying, “Then he saw it: His father was squirming along the floor on his stomach. He was crying, looking terrified, his breath coming in short, hot pants like some kind of hurt animal.” (Paulson 610). Terry was embarrassed about this, especially because there was a crowd around his dad, especially because they were all laughing at him, but instead of hiding from his dad and going to a different aisle of the store, Terry helped his dad out. On page 610 he illustrates, “It burned in and in, and he wanted to walk away, but something made his feet move forward. He knelt next to his father and helped the owner of the store get him up on his feet.” This shows Terry is being supportive because he knows that it was the nice thing to do Furthermore, Terry helps out his dad when he hears about what happened to him in the Vietnam war. For example, when Terry’s dad finished talking about what happened to him in this war he held his hand. This was an emotional moment for the both of them because Terry’s dad didn't want to tell Terry about what happened because he knew nobody would really know what it was like there, but Terry just wanted to know because he was embarrassed. A second moment of Terry being supportive was when the author

An example of this is on page 614 “Terry was still in back of him, and he nodded, but he didn’t see. Not that. He understood only that he didn’t understand and that he would probably never know what it was really like, would probably never understand what had truly happened.” This illustrates that Terry realizes he just need to be there for him and he knows that there is nothing he do. Terry’s dad knows that it will never go away, but it will haunt him for a lifetime. Terry dad says, “That’s what the shrinks say. The psychiatrists tell me that if I talk bout it, the whole thing will go away. But they don’t know. They weren’t there. Nobody was there but me and some other dead people, and they can’t talk because they couldn’t stop the morning.” (Paulson 612). Terry kept trying to find out about what happened to his dad and he kept hitting walls. It was until he talked to his dad and learned that he won't understand what happened in Vietnam because he wasn't there. Terry’s dad knew that Terry wouldn't understand- that nobody would. But Terrys dad gets caught in this nightmare flashback and told Terry and he knows that nothing would change for his dad and he would never