The Paris Cease-Fire and Jenny’s Exile

American Woman

This flow traces Jenny’s response to the end of the Vietnam War and the painful sense that history has moved on without resolving her own life.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The News in Red Hook The News in Red Hook from "American Woman". The News in Red Hook An Article in the Local Paper Jenny reads that Paris cease-fire agreements have been signed to end the war in Vietnam.

The News in Red Hook from "American Woman". The News in Red Hook An Article in the Local Paper Jenny reads that Paris cease-fire agreements have been signed to end the war in Vietnam.

The News in Red Hook An Article in the Local Paper Jenny reads that Paris cease-fire agreements have been signed to end the war in Vietnam. The newspaper describes clothing and ceremony while she remains a fugitive because of her protest against the war. History as Distance The public account makes the conflict seem settled, though its consequences remain immediate for her.

A Memento Rejected A Memento Rejected from "American Woman". A Memento Rejected An Attempt to Keep the News Jenny considers saving the article as a record of the moment the war ended.

A Memento Rejected from "American Woman". A Memento Rejected An Attempt to Keep the News Jenny considers saving the article as a record of the moment the war ended.

A Memento Rejected An Attempt to Keep the News Jenny considers saving the article as a record of the moment the war ended. After sitting by the river and watching the winter light fade, she decides that the clipping feels empty and throws it away. No Resolution The gesture captures her inability to treat a public agreement as personal closure.

A Country Out of Time A Country Out of Time from "American Woman". A Country Out of Time A Small Local World Jenny lives among people whose routines seem untouched by the political changes she follows on the radio.

A Country Out of Time from "American Woman". A Country Out of Time A Small Local World Jenny lives among people whose routines seem untouched by the political changes she follows on the radio.

A Country Out of Time A Small Local World Jenny lives among people whose routines seem untouched by the political changes she follows on the radio. Her isolation makes the wider nation feel both distant and unavoidable. Exile Within the Country She begins to understand hiding as a form of imprisonment in a place she must learn to inhabit.

The End of an Expected Window

The End of an Expected Window Another Political Shock Pauline’s final broadcast and the cadre’s later robbery make Jenny reconsider whether public opinion has changed at all. She sees that the expected opening for fugitives was never secure and may never have existed. A Future Deferred Instead of surrendering, she continues the isolated life she had hoped time would end.

The Search Reaches Her The Search Reaches Her from "American Woman". The Search Reaches Her The Past Returns Rob Frazer finds Jenny at the station, interrupting the routines she has built since arriving at Wildmoor.

The Search Reaches Her from "American Woman". The Search Reaches Her The Past Returns Rob Frazer finds Jenny at the station, interrupting the routines she has built since arriving at Wildmoor.

The Search Reaches Her The Past Returns Rob Frazer finds Jenny at the station, interrupting the routines she has built since arriving at Wildmoor. The return of an old political connection turns her private exile into a new crisis. An Unplanned Future Jenny’s decision to help the survivors begins a chapter she had not expected or prepared for.

February 1973

The evening Jenny reads the cease-fire report

During Jenny’s first winter at Wildmoor

April 1974

June 1974