All the Broken Pieces

“In choking mist

and wailing dust,

through sounds

of whirring helicopters

and open prayers,

I hear her.

You cannot stay here,

she says.

Here you will be like dust.

Bui Doi.

Dust of life.

You cannot stay here.

I remember little,

but I remember.”

In this quote, Burg establishes the fragmented nature of Matt’s memories at the opening of All the Broken Pieces. While Matt remembers his experience growing up in the midst of the Vietnam War, he only remembers “little,” in brief flashes of sounds and images, like helicopters and mist. The memories Matt does have are clearly painful ones, as he hears his mother telling him he must leave her and his home, amid a scene of chaos and violence. Matt refers to his mother only as “her” and “she” rather than calling her Mother, an indication of the distance he feels from his biological family and his own past. While Matt’s mother seems to be sending him away for his own well-being—“here you will be like dust,” she tells him—Matt himself is more aware of the painful separation than the love behind it. As a result, Matt’s memories haunt him in a way he is not yet able to overcome.  

“It’s no wonder

the soldiers are broken,

Dad says.

When they left, they were

high school heroes,

stars of the football team,

with pretty girlfriends.

Now look at them—

hobbling on crutches,

rolling themselves

in wheelchairs,

while people throw things—

tomatoes,

rotten apples,

dirty words.”

This quote introduces the particularly destructive legacy of the Vietnam War that is explored throughout the novel. Not only did “high school heroes”—young men with promising futures—give up opportunities to fight in the war, but they came home to find themselves blamed for the unpopular conflict.