Reaction to When Heaven and Earth Changed Places

In UW, we had to read a selection from The Norton Book of Women's Lives from the autobiography When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip. It is Hayslip's account from when she was a young girl and part of the Viet Cong in Vietnam. I enjoyed reading her story (or chunk of her story) because of a few reasons. First, I like to read about war stories. Although Hayslip was not carrying a gun or was not in actual combat, I like reading about the people at their homes and what happened behind the lines of fire. I also liked reading When Heaven and Earth Changed Places because of Hayslip's courage. She has one incident where there are many Republicans heading toward her. She exclaims, "Despite my terror, I forced myself to walk nonchalantly toward the road, right into the soldiers' teeth." This is to warn fellow Viet Cong that enemies are approaching. She has a lot of guts to be able to walk right into where the Republicans are. Another interesting part of the story is when Hayslip is imprisoned and is tortured in a number of vile ways. I think the worst ways in which she was tortured was when the enemies put honey all over her, loaded her legs with ants, and then threw a snake down her shirt. Hayslip has a lot of courage, I think, to be able to tell this story.

I also enjoyed hearing CJS's father's accounts and stories from when he was in Vietnam. He made it easier to understand what was going on in the war and where Hayslip was geographically. I liked looking at the pictures from when he was in the armed forces. It was great to have a guest speaker that loves to teach and talk about his memories. Thanks again :-)

Well, I will see everyone later.

-T-Bun