Summary

"The Americans" is a short story told in the third person, past tense about James Carver, a Vietnam veteran who married a Japanese woman and goes to visit his daughter who is living and working in Vietnam. At the beginning of the story, the reader does not know the protagonist's race, so the reader does not necessarily realize he is a black man and his until nearly halfway through the story.

The story starts with the statement that James Carver would have never gone to visit Vietnam if not for his daughter and his wife, Michiko. Although the story does not state the setting at first, the events of the story occur in September, a fact that will be revealed later. Michiko wanted to see the country, because she had been told that Vietnam reminded them of Japan before WWII, a country she...