Chapters 40-43 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 40 was a "Fallen-Leaves," in which little An was locked inside a chain-link cage with his mother, who received rent from women who waved at An. The cook brought him pizza, a favorite item on the menu among the GIs, but An did not like it. He asked about the money and his mother said it was theirs, and it would be used to take him to America, where he would study to become a great engineer.

Chapter 41, "Coca-Cola," began with the author's admission that he had drunk two or three Cokes every day during eight months of biking, and that Coke was everywhere in Vietnam. When he stopped at a small shop for a Coke, three drunken soldiers recognized his Vietnamese-American accent and became enraged that he was too good to drink the Coke with ice in it...