G5: A Millions Shades of Gray

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kadohata, Cynthia. 2010, A MILLION SHADES OF GRAY. New York: Atheneum (Simon and Schuster). ISBN: 978-1-4169-1883-7.

The year is 1973, and the place is in the central highlands of Vietnam during the waning days of what the Rhade tribespeople refer to as the “American War.” Eleven-year-old Y’Tin Eban hates school and wants to become an expert elephant handler and open the first school in Vietnam to train others. In the first two chapters, he learns his craft from Tomas Knul and accompanies his father as a guide on raids with the U.S. Special Forces. In the third chapter, the time shifts to 1975 after the Americans have left. Y’Tin has gotten his wish and is responsible for Lady, who, like the other elephants among the mountain people commonly known as “Montagnards” (Rhade) are used for work. Unfortunately for Y’Tin, the North Vietnamese army is bent on punishing the Rhade for their collaboration. They attack and destroy Y’Tin’s village, forcing its people and elephants to flee to the jungle. The Americans are not coming back to help, so Y’Tin and his people are forced to survive using their bravery and knowledge of their surroundings.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Adult readers old enough to remember the Vietnam War will view this novel as an interesting sidebar to the conflict. It does not spend a lot of time on the war and its major battles. For many Americans, the “war” ended with the Paris Peace Accords in 1973. As Kadohata makes clear on page 37, the war continued as the Communist North Vietnamese attempted to subdue South Vietnam and unify their country, which they would in 1975. Though this is the background of the novel and the reason for much of its action, it does not overshadow the basic story of a young boy who does not like school and only wants to spend time doing what he loves the most, tending to his beloved elephant. For this reason alone, upper elementary and middle school readers will appreciate and enjoy this novel.

When it becomes clear that the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) is close by, the villagers call a meeting to decide what their next move will be. From this, we learn a bit more about the Rhade, besides what we have already learned about women making important familial decisions (especially in regard to Y’Tin’s loathsome education). Culturally, they are beholden to the spirit world, more like other indigenous people than the “citified” Vietnamese, and rely on their shaman to interpret its signs. Also, they meet in councils to make decisions that affect their village. To survive in otherwise difficult conditions, they understand their jungle surroundings viscerally and are expert trackers. Ultimately, this expertise will prove fatal to them when they are punished for assisting the Americans. The only aspect of Rhade culture missing from this novel or not explored as much as it could have been is more on their daily lives so that readers could see what exactly they lose when they flee.

Y’Tin is a compelling character in a quick-moving story. His father often repeats the adage, “The jungle changes a man,” and this is true of Y’Tin. He changes from being carefree and devoted to his elephant in his isolated mountain village, typical of school-shirking boys everywhere who disappoint their parents. All of this is shattered when the NVA comes to the village. Two of his friends are killed, he must help dig a mass grave for his neighbors, and he gets separated from his parents. When he and Y’Juen escape to the jungle and meet Tomas, he is unsure about the fate of his family, but he still has Lady and his friends. Soon, however, his friends begin acting strangely, excluding him from making decisions and eventually leaving him altogether. As if to parallel Y’Tin’s story of survival and underscore his desperate circumstances, the pregnant Lady has begun to roam with wild elephants. Y’Tin has changed. He loses his family and his elephant, his two pillars of support, and is bitter toward his (former) friends and the surrounding war for intruding on and altering his life.

Leaving the novel at this point in the plot would have increased readers’ empathy toward Y’Tin, but would not have explored his growth. Once he finds the camp to which his village has escaped, more complications arise which must be resolved: Y’Juen is missing, and the camp commander wants to eat the other village elephants. Only Y’Tin can resolve each, and in doing so overcomes his negative feelings about his friend. Just as he knows the Americans are not returning to help, he also learns about suppressing his own desires and working to better the lives of others. He rescues Y’Juen with the help of Lady, but then he understands that she, too, must be let go in order to live. It’s almost as if he begins to see the complexity of things in “a million shades of gray,” the title line used to describe the jungle in the morning and the color of an elephant’s hide. The war has changed all he knew, and yet he is mature enough to examine his losses carefully and chart a future course.

All of this is described in a straightforward, inviting writing style that mirrors the story. Parts of the beginning are subtly humorous, especially how Y’Tin sprinkles colloquial Americanisms into his speech and finds new and creative ways to demonstrate how he hates school and pales in comparison to his high-achieving older sister. The heightened action of his escape to the jungle and the descriptions of elephants and elephant-handler knowledge are also well-drawn and accessible to the target young adult audience. While Kadohata could have described the lives of the mountain people in more detail, her broad stroke treatment provides enough fundamentals on how French colonialism, American intervention, Rhade collaboration and Vietnamese retribution affected the lives of people in one remote corner of the world.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
--Kadohata depicts the questions, fears, confusion, and apprehension skillfully. Y'Tin is a thoughtful young man searching for clear answers where there are none. (SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, March 2010)
--Kadohata delves deep into the soul of her protagonist while making a faraway place and the stark consequences of war seem very near. Y'Tin's inner conflicts and changing perception of the world will haunt readers. (PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, December 2009)
--The boy's viewpoint does open up political history that is seldom explored from this perspective in books for youth (Why did Y'Tin's father join the Americans? Why did the Americans abandon the Vietnamese?), and teen readers will be caught by the jungle adventure and the village conflict, as well as by Y'Tin's personal battles with friends and enemies and his playful bond with Lady.-- (BOOKLIST, December 2009)
--Middle school students will enjoy not only the story's historic aspects but also the action adventure of Y'Tin's flight into the jungle. (VOICE OF YOUTH ADVOCATES, February 2010)

Review excerpts from the BOOKS IN PRINT database.

CONNECTIONS
--If middle school or upper elementary classes in Language Arts and social studies needed a readable book to supplement a unit on Vietnam or one on how living in wartime (or any other extreme circumstances) changes young people, this would be a useful, entertaining book.
--Students could research the histories of other groups displaced during the war and how they were resettled in the U.S.: Montagnards, South Vietnamese, Hmong, and Cambodians, for example. It might be interesting to chart the various routes these refugees took and read more about what they had and what they left behind. If populations live close by, finding guest speakers would give a personal perspective on war and displacement.
--Other books by Cynthia Kudohata:
CRACKER!: THE BEST DOG IN VIETNAM. 2008. ISBN: 978-1416906384/
KIRA-KIRA. 2006. ISBN: 978-0689856402. (Newbery Medal winner, 2005)
WEEDFLOWER. 2009. ISBN: 978-1416975663.