Blog Entry #10 - Literary Focus of "Stop the Sun"

6. Interpret What is the significance of the story's title, "Stop the Sun"?

         The significance of the story’s title, “Stop the Sun” is Terry’s dad’s fear of being discovered and killed by ‘Charley’ when the dawn came in the Vietnam War and therefore had to hide under a dead body of a soldier, wishing he could stop the sun.

Briefly reciting, Terry’s dad was a soldier who served for the Vietnam War. One night he was crossing the paddy with the other soldiers and suddenly the Vietcong emerged and attacked them. Since it was a sudden attack, Terry’s dad was probably shocked and frightened because he wasn’t aware of this happening, and the only thing he could do was to get low and hid himself. The thought of being the only ‘gladiator’ in a combat that you were losing added up to his fright when he already knew he was the only one alive among all of the soldiers at the moment, but would be dead soon when the dawn came. He was having an internal conflict with himself while laying on the muddy cold ground under the rainy, dark night, wishing that the sun would just stop rising: he was afraid of death. He put so much hope in doing that and therefore terribly felt dead by the fact that he couldn’t stop the sun to rise. Despite that the Vietcong didn’t notice him the next day and therefore fortunately he could live longer and go to marry and had a son, still he was dead inside, suffering hard because of the Vietnam syndrome. That very incident at that very night was indeed a serious, remarkable scar in his mind that couldn’t help returning to him as ‘nightmares’ later on. And whenever it came to his mind, the desperate thought of wishing the sun would stop rising and the disappointment when knowing that it was impossible had ‘killed’ Terry’s dad also came back. What’s the purpose of living without enjoying your life and expressing your feelings or your real self? Terry’s dad lost that privilege, and his ‘sun’ couldn’t rise anymore.