"When we dragged them out, the girl kept dancing. She put the palms of her hands against her ears, which must've meant something, and she danced sideways for a short while, and then backwards. She did a graceful movement with her hips." (pg 136)
The girl's family is dead and yet she dances. It baffled me when I read it but Henry Dobbins and O'Brien seemed to understood. Azar didn't , of course, but thats because his character is flat and does not see the difference in cultures. I feel as though this was an example of the Vietnamese culture when grief is presented. Or it is the product after extreme shock and she must dance it all away. All of her grief, everything. She covers her ears, maybe to stop the world from going on without her loved ones. She is alone and for a moment she can find her family in her dancing. I am probably fishing too deep for an answer but it makes sense to me. To dance away your grief is much more expressive then to just stand there and watch your old home burn.
I also found this part very bizzare, but then I realized some of the things you did. This dancing could be a way for her to mentally escape where she was and keep her spirits and the spirits of her family alive; something the soldiers there also had to master.
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