Dec 9, 2009

Victory over Japan | Introduction

The title story of Gilchrist’s second collection of short fiction, ‘‘Victory Over Japan’’ (1984) is a first-person narrative that chronicles the adventures of a young girl named Rhoda Manning during the final days of World War II. This is the first of three stories in the ‘‘Rhoda’’ section of the book; the other two stories deal with Rhoda as a willful adolescent determined to lose her virginity and as a thirty-four year-old divorcee adjusting to declining fortunes.

Gilchrist’s work is praised for its ‘‘deceptively simple’’ style, for the richness and eccentricity of her Southern female characters, and for the engaging quality of her prose. The story challenges gender stereotypes and explores the dynamics of power and victimization.

Victory over Japan Summary

In ‘‘Victory Over Japan,’’ third-grader Rhoda Manning recounts a series of incidents that occurred at school and at home during the final months of World War II. As the story opens, a fellow classmate named Billy Monday has been bitten by a pet squirrel and must undergo a series of painful rabies shots. The daily ritual, in which the child is escorted from the classroom by his mother and the school principal, Mr. Harmon, turns the shy boy into the center of attention.

Rhoda’s curiosity and her desire to capitalize on the sensational aspects of Billy’s experience make her determined to interview Billy for the school newspaper. She had previously scored a journalistic coup with her revelation that Mr. Harmon had suffered shell shock during World War I; she was, she bragged, the only third-grader whose story was published that year.

Rhoda’s initial overtures to Billy are rejected by her perceptive teacher, Mrs. Jansma, who tries to protect the boy from further victimization. In an effort to secure the exclusive interview and, at the same time, score points with her mother, Rhoda shrewdly chooses the unpopular child as her partner in a PTA-sponsored competitive paper drive in support of the war effort. Rhoda describes the... » Complete Victory over Japan Summary