Does Amory find what she's looking for in Vietnam?

Why does Amory go to Vietnam? Does she find what she is looking for there?

No she doesn't, but at this point in her life I don't think she actually knows what she is looking for.

I thought that she went to Vietnam to be an individual after some difficult years. Although I felt she loved Sholto, the part of her life she spent with him raising her family is given comparatively little time in her story. It seemed to me that she had put aside a lot of her interests and individuality during this period and that Vietnam was her way of rediscovering herself.

She went back to what she knew - being a photographer - and made sure she could still be successful at it. She also had a new sexual relationship which I thought was important for her.

I think Amory was trying to prove to herself that she still had worth. In some sense she absolutely found she was worthy, she won the Matthew B. Brady award for one of her photographs, "The Confirmation". She also took "The Never Too Young To..." photograph that had longevity. I also believe that Amory found what she could and couldn't do anymore. Going home with a new sense of who she was.

I think Amory goes to Vietnam for a few reasons and finds what she is looking for there. She wants to experience war firsthand because her husband and father were so affected by it. She also wants to go back to having a career in photography where should could make a name for herself. And I think as a wife and mother she felt she lost who she was and needed to find herself again, in photography.

I have my doubts but it is undeniably true that more than anything she needed to go if only to be able to feel something. She needed to be reminded of the all consuming passion the camera created in her and to be reminded of her own identity and therefore her self worth.

I'm not sure Amory finds what she's looking for in Vietnam, because I'm not sure she knows what she's looking for. Photography seems to be key to her core being, so maybe that's what she needed and success made her feel worthy again.