Jerry Wood

No Light at the End of the Jungle Jerry Wood

The story begins with a large group of Vietnam POWs being marched to Hanoi from a Cambodian POW camp. Eleven of the malnourished and weak POWs break for the jungle, trying to gain their freedom. John Walker, the main character, reaches the jungle safely and hides in the under brush. As John hides, he hears the slaughter of his fellow escapees and then the main body moves on. John, scared and disheartened, discovers that at least one other had survived, Alan the secondary character. At this point the story will take the reader back in time to John's youth. It depicts John's life from the point of his high school days up through his marriage and his joining the Army then being sent to Vietnam. Although this book is not about the Vietnam War itself, it briefly recounts a few incidents leading up to John's capture by the Viet Cong. The theme will take the reader through John's life in the POW camp, meeting Alan and the bond they form. Then the plot will bring the reader up to the beginning of the book. The story at this point takes on its main plot of the struggles the two main characters have dealing with life after Vietnam. It depicts the internal conflicts of these two and their agony as the other two escapees commit suicide. The plot continues on by taking the reader through John's and Alan's endeavors with the 'Company' and details the various missions they were involved with. The book ends with Alan's internal turmoil becoming too much for him to handle and he commits suicide also. It details John's great sorrow of being the only living survivor of the eleven that attempted to escape from the POW camp. After Alan's suicide, John decides to live the rest of his life for all eleven and making his life mean something. He also at this point quits the 'Company'.