Packer: An Emotional Tone

Packer is another Peace Corps writer. Yet I found he told his story a bit differently than Tidwell. Just a bit differently. They both used each chapter to focus on a topic or two, freely moving back and forth in time within the chapter. Both begin with the authors leaving and training in country and we get their first impressions. Both end their books with their final days. They talk about their projects, their interactions with people both on and off the job (though in Africa the line is blurred). They both end up having a hard time coping, as open and cool as they try to make themselves: Tidwell turns to drinking and stealing and Packer suffers a nervous breakdown and does not finish his term of service (facts which, he adds in the afterword written decades later, were the reasons he wrote the book, for closure).

But Packer’s style is more advanced and more introspective: his style is clearer and I felt I knew the author from the beginning. While a clear style makes the book more enjoyable, I am not discussing style but choices. For example, Packer’s choice to include introspection was a choice, as was Tidwell’s to leave it out.

An early example of what kinds of introspection and what it adds to the book is when Packer talks about a common experience of PCVs: culture shock, the shock you feel of being in a culture different from anything you’ve encountered (there is also reverse culture shock, where it is hard to re-enter your own culture after being away so long – Packer only briefly mentions it in the Afterword). This is something anyone can relate to, any reader who has been somewhere they didn’t understand. Because Packer tells us how this shock affected him, we as readers feel more deeply drawn to the character – he is admitting that he is human and has feelings, in this case feelings of shock, of being out of his element.

Packer also uses more outside research than Tidwell, though he only uses it here and there. The first example is when he looks up the meaning of yovo, the word the Togolese used for whites. It meant “cunning dog,” though the people wouldn’t admit that. This extra information adds to the reading experience and adds more credibility to the author, who we see has done research to back up his story.

Packer is an insightful and imaginative writer. He examines the world around him. For example, on page 75 he reflects on the education system that seems to go nowhere. Packer does this often, and this makes the reading more interesting. Packer is clear on what he thinks; even if I, the reader, do not agree, I respect his ideas.

Packer also speculates, imagines things happening. On page 73 he imagines two of his students in America: “If Kpatcha would have been an engineering student on a scholarship, the American Kodjo would have edited the irreverent school newspaper.” This speculation opens up the story by giving the reader something close to home to compare it to. This happens again on page 171, where Packer imagines what his friend in Paris would do with a letter from a strange African asking for help – Packer imagines his friend will throw it out, which may or nay not be true, but it shows the reader how pessimistic Packer is.

Both Packer and Tidwell admitted, by different degrees, their faults. I think this draws us in because we feel they are being truthful and we want to both be in on the gossip and sympathize. Packer seems to do this more, though. He shows us how in his anger he grabs a boy and drags him to his mother to apologize. He also admits he wants to quit, even says so to his neighbor. In what I think is the heart of the book, the chapter called “Hypochondria,” he tells the story where he fears his is having a stroke only to find out from a German doctor that he has the classic symptoms of a nervous breakdown. In the end, he actually quits without telling anyone, on a whim, it seems. Packer probably had a more compelling confessional tone because, as he said in the Afterword, the writing of the book was an act of closure. This choice to use an emotional tone drew me in to the story.

Two more thoughts. I felt a wanting to see both Tidwell and Packer as writers. Their choices to withhold that fact bothered me, rather than passed by unnoticed. Since their books read much like memoir, I felt they should have revealed that much to us. Second, I realized that these two PC books were written four years after service ended, meaning the writers were still young, inexperienced writers writing their first books. They may not have even known they were going to write about their experiences until after the fact (which Packer suggests in the Afterword, though the fact that he recorded conversations suggested he had some intent). I wonder if the fact that the other books on the list, the travel writing and autoethnography, are written by more experienced, professional writers should be taken into account when comparing them to the PC books.