Born on the Fourth of July

Kovic dwells on the way members of his outfit in Vietnam perceive him after he has killed the corporal from Georgia. Why did he obsess over that perception during the war, and why does he spend so much time writing about it after the war?

What is the impact of Kovic’s use of both the first-person and third-person literary voice? Why does he use both?

What defines a hero? A patriot? Is Ron Kovic an American hero, and is Born on the Fourth of July a patriotic book?

Kovic never articulates a reason that America should not be involved in Vietnam, instead focusing on his story and the way veterans were treated during and after the war. Does it strengthen or weaken the book’s antiwar message that he never lists reasons why America should have left Vietnam or stayed in Vietnam? Does not listing reasons make the book apolitical? Or more timeless?

What role does Kovic’s Catholic faith play in his story and the guilt he feels for the actions he commits during the war? Does Kovic lose his faith? 

In what ways is Kovic swayed to join the Marines by propaganda and pop culture? Nearly 50 years after the book was published, what pieces of pop culture still encourage people to join the military? 

Kovic seeks community throughout the book. He writes of feeling a “togetherness” with protesters and a similar feeling with soldiers during the war. Do the actions carried out by the groups—protesting versus killing—make him value one group over the other? In what ways does Kovic need to experience both communities to find out who he is? 

The childhood experiences Kovic describes would have been universal to most middle-class white children of his generation. At the time when the book was published, the inclusion of the generational touchstones would have conveyed a similarity between Kovic’s life and that of many of its readers. Does reading it nearly 50 years after it was published diminish that connection between author and reader, and why or why not?