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The American War Novel MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature THE AMERICAN WAR NOVEL Supervisor: Author: PhDr. Irena Přibylová, Ph.D Dorian Maršálek English department April 2006 THE MOTTO: “In war you lose your sense of the definite, hence your sense of truth itself, and therefore it’s safe to say that in a true war story nothing is ever absolutely true.” Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried (p 88) Declaration of Originality: I declare that I have written this thesis myself using just the sources listed in the enclosed bibliography. …………………………………………… Dorian Maršálek Acknowledgement: I would like to express my thanks to PhDr. Irena Přibylová, Ph.D who kindly assisted my endeavor and brought in many cogent comments and remarks as the supervisor of this thesis. Table of Contents: Declaration of originality ……………………………………………….. i Acknowledgement …………………………………………………………………. ii Table of Contents ……………………………………………………………… iii 1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………… 1 2. The Second World War 2.1 General information ………………………………………………. 3 2.2 The most important dates and events ……………………… 5 2.3 The novelists’ experience with the war …………………. 7 3. Postmodernism 3.1 The period ……………………………………………………………… 10 3.2 Characteristic features of postmodern literature …. 10 3.3 The war novel’s parameters …………………………………… 13 4. Major parallels and contrasts of war novels 4.1 The characters ……………………………………………………… 15 4.2 The setting …………………………………………………………… 23 4.3 The themes 4.3.1 Friendship …………………………………………………… 26 4.3.2 Love and sex ………………………………………………… 33 4.3.3 Death and cruelty ………………………………………... 40 4.3.4 The absurdity of war …………………………………… 48 5. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………… 56 6. Bibliography ………………………………………………………………… 59 7. Appendix ……………………………………………………………………… 62 8. Summary/ Shrnutí ………………………………………………………… 71 Annotation/ Anotace 1. Introduction I have been told a lot about the Second World War by my grandfather who, as a university student, had spent almost one year in an interment camp in Saxenhausen, East Germany. During his unwanted stay in terrible living conditions, he had experienced inhuman treatment as well as a great deal of hopelessness and injustice. The stories and recollections might have helped me realize partly in what aspects the period had been different from the time in which I have been living now. However, the idea to pick a topic dealing with warlike environment crossed my mind when reading Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 because it amazed me how the novel, or the author respectively, was able to combine scenes portraying all uneasiness or despair of the major protagonists and passages filled with fun and humorous situations at the same time. This ‘diversity’ seems to be among factors that should prevent readers from getting bored as well as it is to make novels interesting to read. I was wondering whether all books concerned with the greatest world-wide conflict of the 20th century follow similar patterns or whether there are any exceptions that could be regarded as distinguishing traits and therefore be worth mentioning. In this sense, my thesis focuses above all on thematic parallels and contrasts in ten selected war novels but it also takes a brief survey of chief characters and setting into account. Its aim is to analyze and compare which particular topics in what amount appear in war novels, what the authors’ individual ways of depicting various historical events are, how they approach them, and how they integrate them into their fictitious stories. Furthermore, it is obvious that each writer concentrates on and describes different battles within the Second World War, depending on the actual part of the world to which they happened to be drafted. Finally, it should be stated that the inclusion of Ray Rigby – a novelist of British origin – and Tim O’Brien – a writer who depicts the Vietnam War – into this thesis titled ‘The American War Novel’ was not caused by my ignorance of either of them. The reason is that O’Brien was born in 1946 and his novel The Things They Carried was published some 44 years later, which establishes him as a relatively young American author, as opposed to those bringing their books out in the 1960s or 1970s. Ray Rigby’s Hill of Sand, on the other hand, is to represent the branch of European war novels that were written in English. 2. The Second World War 2.1 General Information The content of the Second World War seems to be treated differently by different nations. For Britain as well as for most of the European countries it started in September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. The United States was made to enter the war in December 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Second World War was practically the first and the only ‘global war’ in which nearly all sovereign states of the world participated. Among the countries that never took part in this conflict and therefore managed to preserve its neutrality were Switzerland as the center of the world finance, Sweden, the neutrality of which had the same economic significance for both warring sides, the Republic of Ireland, Spain, and Portugal together with Afghanistan, Yemen, Nepal, and Mongolia. Some of the countries that supported Germany at the beginning but get affiliated with the Allies at the end belonged to so- called Axis. It was a metaphoric label for a German-Italian pact stressing common ground of all involved nations – nations circling around one axis. Although Italy stood at the birth of the Axis, it turned against Germany in 1943 after several unsuccessful attempts to seize Greece and some areas in northern Africa. Bulgaria aligned with the Axis in March 1941. It fought Yugoslavia, Greece, and the Soviet Union but changed sides in 1944. In spite of playing an important role as far as the invasion in the Soviet Union was concerned, Romania started fighting Germany since August 1944. As Finland lost in the “Winter War” against the Soviets, it joined German policy and did not separate until September 1944. In the Far East Thailand and Myanmar, which were at that time controlled by the Japanese, went to war with the Allies but consequently gave a helping hand to them. Two radical reasons are believed to influence the victorious campaign of the allied nations during the war. The first of them was great industrial power of the United States enabling it to produce countless number of guns, warships and aircrafts. The second one, then, was its leaders – particularly the British premier Winston Churchill in company with the president of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt. Both men were more or less successful in making right decisions and they trusted their military commanders, not interfering with authorities of theirs. Out of all that has been said or written, it is obvious that the whole conflict was full of violent changes, having both positive and negative impacts on all countries in the course of and long after the war itself. “The Second World War recast the entire society and destroyed much more than any other event in the history. It crushed people’s faith to reach higher ideals. Although freedom and democracy won finally, the values of moral and intellectual development heading toward a perfect society were burned and buried under the ruins in Dresden, or erased by a mushroom cloud over Hiroshima and Nagasaki” (O’Neill 15; translated by Dorian Maršálek). 2.2 The most important dates and events (source: http://ireferaty.wz.cz/go2.php?id=5; translated by Dorian Maršálek) Year Diplomatic West East South Far East & negotiations Pacific areas 1939 Aug. 23 – Russian- Sep. 3 – Sep. 1 – a Japan attacks German contract Great Britain German Russia and France attack on declared war Poland on Germany Sep. 17 – the Soviet Union attacks Poland Sep. 28 – the division of Poland has been finished Nov. 30 – the Soviet Union attacks Finland 1940 France has April, 9 – A June – the September – the war in surrendered German attack occupation Italy China on Denmark of the attacks and Norway Baltic Egypt States Sep. 27 – Japan May, 10 – the Soviet April – a and Italy have Germany Union fights German signed a contract attacks the in a ‘winter invasion in Netherlands, war’ Finland Yugoslavia Belgium, the end on and Greece Luxembourg March, 12 – and France a peace treaty is signed Germany (a ‘three- power treaty’) June, 22 – France accepts the armistice from Germany August – October – the battle over England 1941 April, 13 – Japan June, 22 – April, 13 – and the Soviet Germany vs. Japan and the Union agree not to the Soviet Soviet Union attack other Union (the agree not to countries Barbarossa attack other plan) countries August – the December – a Atlantic charter battle at Moscow March, 11 – the December, 7 – Lend Lease Plan Pearl Harbor (USA) 1942 Jan. 1 – the August – the Oct. 23 – June 3 – 7 – Great Alliance battle at German and the battle of (Washington Stalingrad has Italian Midway convention) begun troops defeated at Al Alamein November – a November – Soviet landing of offensive at American Stalingrad and British troops in Algeria 1943 January – a February – the July/ a battle at conference defeat of August – Santa Cruz in Casablanca German army at landing of Stalingrad American and British troops at Sicily May – Stalin dissolves the Communist Internationale October – an August – a September August - appointment of battle at Kursk – the Guadalcanal the Soviet Union, landing of the USA and Great the allied Britain in Moscow troops in – the Big Three Italy; Italy has signed the armistice and joined the allied countries against Germany December – a conference in Teheran 1944 July – Bretton July 6 – the the Soviet Monte the invasion Woods – formation landing in Union seizes Cassino of the of MMF and SB Normandy Romania, Philippines (operation Bulgaria, Overlord) Yugoslavia, and Hungary August – December – July – the Churchill and Ardennes Soviets entered Roosevelt (battle of Poland, the negotiate the Bulge Baltic States in Quebec and the Balkans October – Churchill and Stalin in Moscow 1945 February – Yalta March – May 9 – April 1945 – crossing of Czechoslovakia Okinawa the Rhine is liberated August – Postupim April 25 – Aug.
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