The Women by Kristin Hannah
Week 9: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial — Recognition and Reckoning
Read the chapters surrounding the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and Frankie's experience of it.
Previewing Week 9 of The Women
Read 3 of 7 discussion questions below. Unlock the complete 14-week guide when you’re ready.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial — 'The Wall' — is one of the most emotionally charged settings in American public life, and Hannah brings Frankie to it at exactly the right moment.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, dedicated in 1982, was itself a contested symbol — its design, its politics, its meaning were all debated. How does Hannah use the historical reality of The Wall to create a scene of emotional and symbolic power in the novel?
2.When Frankie encounters The Wall, she is looking for specific names. What do those names represent in her interior life, and how does the act of finding them — touching them — function as a form of ritual or ceremony?
3.The Wall memorializes men — it does not, by design, include the women who served in Vietnam in its original conception. Hannah is deeply aware of that exclusion. How does she use Frankie's experience at the memorial to explore the theme of women's invisibility in the historical record?
a.What does Frankie feel when she stands before The Wall — grief, pride, anger, all of the above?
b.How does Hannah communicate those layered feelings without sentimentality?