In Country

Content Warning: The source text contains incidents of alcohol and substance misuse, references to post-traumatic stress disorder and death by suicide, and racist comments by characters.

Samantha Hughes, known as Sam, is the protagonist and third-person limited narrator of In Country. She is 17 years old and has just graduated from high school as the story opens. Other characters describe Sam as skinny, active, and, occasionally, a pest. Sam is a runner and uses her running as a time to work out complicated thoughts and feelings.

In the year before the opening of the story, Sam's mother moved to Lexington with her new husband and baby daughter. Sam steadfastly refuses to go with her, revealing an important characteristic: She does not want to do what others tell her to do. In addition, her persistent efforts at pushing Emmett and other Vietnam veterans to tell her about their experiences also reveal what some might call stubbornness. Her persistence, however, is understandable, considering the loss of her father before she was born. Throughout the novel, Sam wants to learn more about her father and her own identity; by so doing, she traverses many ethical decisions and learns a great deal about herself.