47 pages • 1 hour read
Joan BauerStand Tall
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial and Literary Context: Joan Bauer and Middle Grade Literature
Born in 1951 in River Forest, Illinois, Joan Bauer hails from a literary family—her mother was a high school English teacher and her grandmother, a professional storyteller. Her parents divorced when she was young, and her father struggled with alcohol use disorder, eventually disappearing from her life. After suffering injuries in a car accident in her thirties, Bauer pivoted from screenwriting and journalism to writing novels, specifically for children and young adults. While recovering, she wrote her first book, Squashed. Since then, she has written many award-winning novels, including Hope Was Here, which won the Newbery Award in 2001. Drawing on her own experiences growing up, Bauer’s novels often tap into adversity faced by young people. For example, Rules of the Road is inspired by her struggles with a father with alcohol use disorder. Similarly, Stand Tall tackles the difficulty of coping with divorce, as Tree notes “just how complicated his life had become” since his parents split (3).
Bauer’s work fits snugly within the literary context of realistic middle grade literature, as it addresses coming-of-age amid personal and family struggles. Like Tree, many young characters traverse the challenges of divorce, and other popular titles like Kate DiCamillo’s Florence and Ulysses tackle this theme. In Stand Tall, Bauer also incorporates the influence of Tree’s grandfather, a veteran of the Vietnam War, which hammers home the idea that historical events can impact future generations. The legacy of Vietnam is another topic explored by various middle grade novels, such as Gary D. Schmidt’s Okay for Now. Along with Grandpa’s memories of Vietnam, he sustained a leg injury there that led to an amputation. Middle grade texts that center on people with disabilities are becoming more common, most notably Sharon Draper’s Out of My Mind trilogy. Furthermore, Bauer’s narrative addresses the need for belonging in middle school. For Tree, it is his exceptional height that sets him apart, which sheds light on a struggle many kids his age face: body image.
Sociohistorical Context: The Vietnam War
In the Vietnam War, spanning from 1954-75, the United States supported South Vietnam in its fight against communist North Vietnam. To augment the military amid a war that divided American citizens, the federal government instituted the draft in the mid-1960s, a system of enlisting young men into the army even if they did not volunteer. In Vietnam, unlike other wars, there was no specified front and no safe area. Ambushes and attacks could happen at any time, and booby traps were planted everywhere. As a result, soldiers couldn’t be sure when they were safe or even where their enemy was. As Tree’s grandfather notes, “The people who went to fight that war, for the most part, did their best to fight an enemy that was harder to figure out and more dangerous than any of us knew” (33). That danger was evident in the number of casualties—the United States lost over 58,000 soldiers to the conflict.
On the Homefront, survivors faced a difficult return, for many citizens were vocally opposed to the war. Soldiers, many of whom were drafted, were spit upon and called names by protestors and an angry public. Also, many others suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to the horrors they experienced while overseas. Furthermore, lingering injuries and illnesses related to their service made life much different for veterans. In Stand Tall, Tree’s grandfather sustained a leg injury while fighting and opted to amputate his leg. In the years since Vietnam, much has been done to honor veterans and to rectify their ill treatment. In Washington, DC, a memorial was constructed to honor the lives of those lost in the conflict. The memorial, a reflecting wall, contains the names of those who died, including soldiers deemed Missing in Action. Tree and his grandfather visit this site, where visitors place flowers and other tributes to the fallen.
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