The Paradox of Victory: the American Soldier in the Novel of World War Ii

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Paradox of Victory: the American Soldier in the Novel of World War Ii Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1972 The aP radox of Victory: the American Soldier in the Novel of World War II. Ira Eugene Hindman Jr Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Hindman, Ira Eugene Jr, "The aP radox of Victory: the American Soldier in the Novel of World War II." (1972). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2217. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2217 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This dissertation was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target” for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand comer of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections w ith a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation. Silver prints of "photographs" may be ordered at additional charge by writing the Order Department, giving the catalog number, title, author and specific pages you wish reproduced. University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 A Xerox Education Company 72-28,352 HINDMAN, Jr., Ira Eugene, 1931- THE PARADOX OF VICTORY: THE AMERICAN SOLDIER IN THE NOVEL OF WORLD WAR II. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1972 Language and Literature, general University Microfilms, A XEROX Company (Ann Arbor, Michigan © 1972 IRA EUGENE HINDMAN JR. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE PARADOX OF VICTORY: THE AMERICAN SOLDIER IN THE NOVEL OF WORLD WAR II A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Ira Eugene Hindman, Jr. B.A., Roberts Wesleyan College, 1955 B.D., Asbury Theological Seminary, 1958 M.A., Stetson University, 1965 Hay* 1972 PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. University Microfilms, A Xerox Education Company ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my deep appreciation to Dr. Lewis P. Simpson for his many important suggestions and his many hours of assistance that led to the completion of this study. I should also like to thank the other members of my doctoral committee: Dr. Darwin H. Shrell, Dr. Jack G. Gilbert, Dr. John Hazard Wildman, and Dr. Burl L. Noggle. ii TABLE OP CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT............................. ill TABLE OF CON T E N T S ..................................... iv ABSTRACT ............................................. V INTRODUCTION ......................................... viii CHAPTER I. COMING OF AGE IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION .... 1 II. PRE-WAR LITERATURE .......................... 50 III. THE COMING OF W A R ............................ 84 IV. INDUCTION: FROM CIVILIAN TO SOLDIER IN THE WORLD WAR II N O V E L ................... 104 V. TRAINING: LEARNING THE ART OF SURVIVAL IN THE WORLD WAR II NOVEL ................... 150 VI. COMBAT: "PRO PATRIA MORI” IN THE WORLD WAR II NOVEL ................... 219 VII. DEFEAT IN VICTORY: THE NOVELISTS' VISION OF THE F U T U R E ........................ 276 CONCLUSION ........................................... 334 LIST OF WORKS C I T E D ...................................... 337 VITA ................................................. 345 iii ABSTRACT The catastrophic events of World War II have remained in the American writer's consciousness for thirty years— there are still occasional "war novels" written today. But twenty-five years ago the War was an ascendent reality and an unusually large number of war novels was being written. This study is concerned with that first flood of Second World War novels. America emerged from World War II a victor. But it is the contention of this dissertation that most of the American novelists who wrote of the War found little in the victory to cheer them. There were a few novelists who continued, in spite of a world aflame, to reflect the optimism of a waning liberal socialism. There were many more who, overwhelmed by the darkness they saw in human nature and in the world that man had made a grim reflection of himself, either retreated into nihilism or sought, painfully and with little success, some small hope for the future of the individual. The novels of these latter novelists are permeated by a pessimism that arises out of their recognition of the high cost that the individual had to pay in order for the nation to achieve victory. That cost, according to the iv V novelists, included lives spent, limbs lost, and minds broken; but more significantly, it included the enslave­ ment of the will and the brutalization of the spirit. In other words, it cost the individual his humanity. Despair at the cost, not joy in the victory, is the underlying motif that is discovered in the Second World War novel. This study is also concerned with the origins of the war novelists' sense of despair. The antecedents of their despair, the study suggests, are found in the three decades of history that preceded their writing, in the literary forces that they inherited, and in the inhumanity that they found in military life. World War I, the abortive "war to end wars," shocked a rather naive generation into the reality of man's potential for evil, convinced them that many of their father's values were untenable, and sent them on a search for what security they could find in a decade of prosperity. When the vision of prosperity evaporated into the nightmare of depression, their distrust of traditional values deepened. Those who were aware of literary traditions, and certainly the young men who were to write the World Wax II novels were, could not escape current literary patterns. They had to react to the cynical assessment of traditional values suggested by the writers of the 1920's and the even more despairing judge­ ments leveled by the writers of the 1930's. Then came Selective Service. It appeared to the novelists that vi personal freedom and individuality had been replaced by the rigidly proscribed life of military uniformity. With the final blow to humane values, an insane war that seemed to deny any human goodness, the novelists were convinced. They had read the evidence; their conclusion was that life was war, and defeat was its end. The future of the indi­ vidual did not appear at all promising to them. INTRODUCTION It is the thesis of this study that, in spite of the American victory in World War II, most American novels dealing with the War demonstrate despair of a peaceful and humane future* Part One is concerned with the early sources of this despair. It rests upon the thesis that their experience of pre-World War II America is a direct and significant source, if implicit, of the despair that novelists expressed in their war novels; it examines the source of the attitudes given by novelists to the American soldier in the World War II novel. Presenting in very broad terms the American milieu between World Wars, Part One focuses primarily upon the 1930's, a period of changing values when entrenched American self-satisfaction was giving away to an increasingly bitter disillusionment with that mystique of success and moral superiority that Americans had come to think of as their special birthright. The future novelists' experience taught them to question all voices whether political, social, or moral. When they entered military life they were, unlike their World War I counterparts, already confused about their values, distrustful of their country's values, and unsure about the world and their future in it. When they came to describe their experience of war in fictional terms, they viii wrote their own bewilderment with and despair for their culture into the attitudes of their soldiers’ characters. The second part of this study deals with the World War II novels themselves. Its focus is upon the American soldiers' experience of and response to military life as presented within these novels. The transformation of the soldier, within the novel, from civilian to combat veteran provides the novelists with an opportunity to examine their soldiers' (and thus their own culture's) values and attitudes under conditions of extreme stress. In some of the novels the soldier is made to reaffirm the traditional values as still valid.
Recommended publications
  • Film Essay for "The Best Years of Our Lives"
    The Best Years of Our Lives Homer By Gabriel Miller Wermels (Harold Russell), a “The Best Years of Our Lives” originated in a recommen- seaman, who dation from producer Samuel Goldwyn's wife that he read has long a “Time” magazine article entitled "The Way Home" been en- (1944), about Marines who were having difficulty readjust- gaged to the ing to life after returning home from the war. Goldwyn girl next door. hired novelist MacKinlay Kantor, who had flown missions He returns as a correspondent with the Eighth Air Force and the from the war Royal Air Force (and would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize a spastic, in 1955 for his Civil War novel “Andersonville”), to use that unable to article as the basis for a fictional adaptation of approxi- control his mately 100 pages. Inexplicably, Kantor turned in a novel movements. in verse that ran closer to 300 pages. Goldwyn could barely follow it, and he wanted to shelve the project but Sherwood was talked into letting Kantor work on a treatment. and Wyler made some William Wyler, his star director, returned to Goldwyn significant Studios in 1946, having been honorably discharged from changes that the Air Force as a colonel, also receiving the Legion of added more Merit Award. Wyler's feelings about his life and profession complexity had changed: "The war had been an escape into reality … and dramatic Only relationships with people who might be dead tomor- force to the row were important." Wyler still owed Goldwyn one more story. In film, and the producer wanted him to make “The Bishop's Kantor's ver- Wife” with David Niven.
    [Show full text]
  • Frederick Busch and Annie Proulx Forebears of Contemporary War Fiction
    PETER MOLIN Frederick Busch and Annie Proulx Forebears of Contemporary War Fiction n an Atlantic magazine article titled “Where’s the Great Novel about the War on Terror?” Matt Gallagher, the author of the Iraq War memoir Kaboom, explored reasons why, as of the time he wrote in 2011, so little fiction had appeared that Iaddressed America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Almost a decade after the first bombs were dropped in Afghanistan,” Gallagher states, “even the most avid bookworm would be hard-pressed to identify a war novel that could be considered definitive of this new generation’s battles.” Gallagher considers several reasons why so little contemporary war fiction had yet been published. The wars’ lack of closure had drained would-be authors’ clarity of vision and sense of purpose. Publishing whims favored domestic subjects aimed at women readers. It was only natural that memoirs constituted the first wave of literary response to the wars and given time more fiction will come. About all these points, and especially the last one, Gallagher is ambivalent. He notes the recent publication of Siobhan Fallon’s collection of short stories You Know When The Men Are Gone, about military life on Fort Hood, Texas, during a time of war, but hesitates to conclude that more war fiction will follow Fallon’s achievement. Iraq and Afghanistan, he suggests, may turn out to be like other “brushfire wars,” such as the Phillipine-American War at the turn of the 20th-century, that never generate “classic” novelistic depiction. Time would prove Gallagher wrong in regard to his last point, for in the coming years a number of story collections and novels heralded what Washington Post book critic Jeff Turrentine would later call a “Golden Age” of contemporary war fiction.
    [Show full text]
  • 1955 Guantanamo Bay Carnival Opens Today
    " - -- _'-Vo- -- - 'oers CTMO Lke The Sunskine" Vol. VII, No. 7 U. S. Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Saturday, 19 February 1955 1955 Guantanamo Bay Carnival Opens Today Festivities Set to Run Four Days The 1955 edition of the Guantanamo Bay Carnival, featuring a 1955 Dodge Royal Sedan and a 1955 Ford Convertible as the top attractions, will get underway today for a gala four days. Opening its gates to the public this afternoon at 1300, the carnival will run for four big days; today until 2200, Sunday from 1300 to 2200, Monday from 1700 to 2200, and a grand finale day from 1000 to 2000 on Tuesday at the end of which time some two persons will not walk away, but drive off in a new Dodge andi a new Foind. Staged each year for the Guan- Base POs Complete Exams, tanamo Bay Naval Base Commnun- Rates Due in Group iy Fund, the carnival will offer On Tuesday, 22 Feb, second class entertainment of all sorts for all officers of the Naval Base ages with 19 entertainment booths, petty kiddie will compete in the service-wide eight refreshment booths, for advancement in rides, horseback riding, roller skat- examinations and a special to Pay Grade E-6, complet- ing, fortune telling, rating aexamnatons souvenir booth. This year, the car- ingring the to semi-annualPeiaay examinations. nvli eddb omte Then the waiting begins until late Ciran CP W. b. Carute April or early May when the re- suits of the four examinations, Commanding Officer, Naval Station. Pay Grades E-4, E-5, E-6, and R u n n i n g the entertainment E-7 will be returned from the ex- booths will be the Base Commands, amining center.
    [Show full text]
  • © Copyrighted by Charles Ernest Davis
    SELECTED WORKS OF LITERATURE AND READABILITY Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Davis, Charles Ernest, 1933- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 07/10/2021 00:54:12 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/288393 This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 70-5237 DAVIS, Charles Ernest, 1933- SELECTED WORKS OF LITERATURE AND READABILITY. University of Arizona, Ph.D., 1969 Education, theory and practice University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan © COPYRIGHTED BY CHARLES ERNEST DAVIS 1970 iii SELECTED WORKS OF LITERATURE AND READABILITY by Charles Ernest Davis A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY EDUCATION In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY .In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 19 6 9 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE I hereby recommend that this dissertation prepared under my direction by Charles Ernest Davis entitled Selected Works of Literature and Readability be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy PqulA 1- So- 6G Dissertation Director Date After inspection of the final copy of the dissertation, the following members of the Final Examination Committee concur in its approval and recommend its acceptance:" *7-Mtf - 6 7-So IdL 7/3a This approval and acceptance is contingent on the candidate's adequate performance and defense of this dissertation at the final oral examination; The inclusion of this sheet bound into the library copy of the dissertation is evidence of satisfactory performance at the final examination.
    [Show full text]
  • American War Fiction from Vietnam to Iraq Elizabeth Eggert Macalester College, [email protected]
    Macalester College DigitalCommons@Macalester College English Honors Projects English Department 2018 Shifting Binaries: American War Fiction from Vietnam to Iraq Elizabeth Eggert Macalester College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/english_honors Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Eggert, Elizabeth, "Shifting Binaries: American War Fiction from Vietnam to Iraq" (2018). English Honors Projects. 42. http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/english_honors/42 This Honors Project - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the English Department at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Honors Projects by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Shifting Binaries: American War Fiction from Vietnam to Iraq By Elizabeth Eggert Honors Thesis Presented to the Macalester College English Department Faculty Advisor: James Dawes April 5, 2018 Acknowledgements First and foremost, thank you to my advisor, Jim Dawes, for his support in the development, editing, and completion of this project. I would also like to thank Penelope Geng and Karin Aguilar-San Juan for the time they spent reading and commenting on this paper. Finally, I want to thank my family and friends for their support, encouragement, and listening during this lengthy process. Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One: The Boundaries of Empathy in The Things They Carried 11 Chapter Two: In the Lake of the Woods and Memory 22 Chapter Three: Solipsism and the Absent Enemy in The Yellow Birds 34 Chapter Four: Redeployment and the Limits of the War Novel 47 Conclusion 60 Eggert 1 Introduction Poet and Vietnam War veteran Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem “Missing in Action” is constructed around a binary of an ‘us’ versus a ‘them.’ The poem appears in Komunyakaa’s second full-length book of poetry, Dien Cai Dau1, which focused on his experiences serving in Vietnam.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Honors a Distinguished Work of Fiction by an American Author, Preferably Dealing with American Life
    Pulitzer Prize Winners Named after Hungarian newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction honors a distinguished work of fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. Chosen from a selection of 800 titles by five letter juries since 1918, the award has become one of the most prestigious awards in America for fiction. Holdings found in the library are featured in red. 2017 The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 2016 The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015 All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 2014 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 2013: The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson 2012: No prize (no majority vote reached) 2011: A visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan 2010:Tinkers by Paul Harding 2009:Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 2008:The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz 2007:The Road by Cormac McCarthy 2006:March by Geraldine Brooks 2005 Gilead: A Novel, by Marilynne Robinson 2004 The Known World by Edward Jones 2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 Empire Falls by Richard Russo 2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon 2000 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri 1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham 1998 American Pastoral by Philip Roth 1997 Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Stephan Milhauser 1996 Independence Day by Richard Ford 1995 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields 1994 The Shipping News by E. Anne Proulx 1993 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler 1992 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
    [Show full text]
  • The Teacher and American Literature. Papers Presented at the 1964 Convention of the National Council of Teachers of English
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 042 741 TB 001 605 AUTHOR Leary, Lewis, Fd. TITLE The Teacher and American Literature. Papers Presented at the 1964 Convention of the National Council of Teachers of English. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Champaign, Ill. PUB DATE 65 NOTE 194p. EDITS PRICE EDRS Price MF-$0.75 HC-$9.80 DESCRIPTORS American Culture, *American Literature, Authors, Biographies, Childrens Books, Elementary School Curriculum, Literary Analysis, *Literary Criticism, *Literature Programs, Novels, Poetry, Short Stories ABSTRACT Eighteen papers on recent scholarship and its implications for school programs treat American ideas, novels, short stories, poetry, Emerson and Thoreau, Hawthorne and Melville, Whitman and Dickinson, Twain and Henry James, and Faulkner and Hemingway. Authors are Edwin H. Cady, Edward J. Gordon, William Peden, Paul H. Krueger, Bernard Duffey, John A. Myers, Jr., Theodore Hornberger, J. N. Hook, Walter Harding, Betty Harrelson Porter, Arlin Turner, Robert E. Shafer, Edmund Reiss, Sister M. Judine, Howard W.Webb, Jr., Frank H. Townsend, Richard P. Adams, and John N. Terrey. In five additional papers, Willard Thorp and Alfred H. Grommon discuss the relationship of the teacher and curriculum to new.a7proaches in American literature, while Dora V. Smith, Ruth A. French, and Charlemae Rollins deal with the implications of American literature for elementary school programs and for children's reading. (MF) U.S. DEPAIIMENT Of NE11114. EDUCATION A WOK Off ICE Of EDUCATION r--1 THIS DOCUMENT HAS KM ITEPtODUCIO EXACTLY AS IHCEIVID 1110D1 THE 11115011 01 014111I1.1101 01,611111116 IL POINTS Of TIM PI OPINIONS 4" SIAM 00 NOT IKESSAIllY INPINSENT OFFICIAL OW Of IDS/CATION N.
    [Show full text]
  • Catalog Records April 7, 2021 6:03 PM Object Id Object Name Author Title Date Collection
    Catalog Records April 7, 2021 6:03 PM Object Id Object Name Author Title Date Collection 1839.6.681 Book John Marshall The Writings of Chief Justice Marshall on the Federal 1839 GCM-KTM Constitution 1845.6.878 Book Unknown The Proverbs and other Remarkable Sayings of Solomon 1845 GCM-KTM 1850.6.407 Book Ik Marvel Reveries of A Bachelor or a Book of the Heart 1850 GCM-KTM The Analogy of Religion Natural and Revealed, to the 1857.6.920 Book Joseph Butler 1857 GCM-KTM Constitution and Course of Nature 1859.6.1083 Book George Eliot Adam Bede 1859 GCM-KTM 1867.6.159.1 Book Charles Dickens The Old Curiosity Shop: Volume I Charles Dickens's Works 1867 GCM-KTM 1867.6.159.2 Book Charles Dickens The Old Curiosity Shop: Volume II Charles Dickens's Works 1867 GCM-KTM 1867.6.160.1 Book Charles Dickens Nicholas Nickleby: Volume I Charles Dickens's Works 1867 GCM-KTM 1867.6.160.2 Book Charles Dickens Nicholas Nickleby: Volume II Charles Dickens's Works 1867 GCM-KTM 1867.6.162 Book Charles Dickens Great Expectations: Charles Dickens's Works 1867 GCM-KTM 1867.6.163 Book Charles Dickens Christmas Books: Charles Dickens's Works 1867 GCM-KTM 1868.6.161.1 Book Charles Dickens David Copperfield: Volume I Charles Dickens's Works 1868 GCM-KTM 1868.6.161.2 Book Charles Dickens David Copperfield: Volume II Charles Dickens's Works 1868 GCM-KTM 1871.6.359 Book James Russell Lowell Literary Essays 1871 GCM-KTM 1876.6.
    [Show full text]
  • Norms and Narratives: Can Judges Avoid Serious Moral Error Colloquy
    Alabama Law Scholarly Commons Articles Faculty Scholarship 1990 Norms and Narratives: Can Judges Avoid Serious Moral Error Colloquy Richard Delgado University of Alabama - School of Law, [email protected] Jean Stefancic University of Alabama - School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_articles Recommended Citation Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic, Norms and Narratives: Can Judges Avoid Serious Moral Error Colloquy, 69 Tex. L. Rev. 1929 (1990). Available at: https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_articles/557 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Alabama Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by an authorized administrator of Alabama Law Scholarly Commons. Norms and Narratives: Can Judges Avoid Serious Moral Error? Richard Delgado* and Jean Stefancic** I. Introduction .............................................. 1929 II. Notorious Cases and Saving Narratives: What the Juxtaposition Shows ...................................... 1934 A. Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson .................... 1934 B. Indian Cases ......................................... 1939 C. The Chinese Exclusion Case ........................... 1943 D. The Japanese Internment Cases ....................... 1945 E. Bradwell v. Illinois ................................... 1947 F Buck v. Bell .......................................... 1948 G. Bowers v. Hardwick .................................. 1950 III. Law and Literature: The Canon
    [Show full text]
  • Psychological Effects of War in All Quiet on the Western Front
    Tofil 1 Ashley Tofil ENGL 2112 – ENGL 4810 Dr. Bennett 22 July 2016 Psychological Effects of War in All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque wrote All Quiet on the Western Front with one simple goal in mind – “to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.” The brutal trench and chemical warfare of World War I was enough to kill millions of men. However, millions more were destroyed by the psychological ramifications of fighting such a war. Through Paul Bäumer’s narrative, the reader gains a greater understanding of how the war destroyed the men’s youth, ruined their memories of home, and forever altered their relationships with their families. The reader is also able to glean the one saving grace – the comradeship that allows the men to cling to sanity in the hopes of making it home in one piece. The brotherhood that the soldiers at the front find with each other is the only factor capable of mitigating any of the loss they suffer. At the promising age of eighteen, Paul Bäumer and his classmates enlist in the Army because of the forceful persuasion of their schoolmaster, Kantorek. These boys implicitly trusted their adult mentors, but “…the first death [they] saw shattered [their] belief” (Remarque 12); in that moment Paul also loses his youthful innocence. “There are seven stages of life, and… the transition from adolescent to adulthood is critical… this stage transition was shattered, and that… will have profound effects on the abilities of the soldiers to adapt to post-war life” (Hunt 491).
    [Show full text]
  • James Gould Cozzens: a Documentary Volume
    Dictionary of Literary Biography • Volume Two Hundred Ninety-Four James Gould Cozzens: A Documentary Volume Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book GALE" THOMSON GALE Detroit • New York • San Diego • San Francisco • Cleveland • New Haven, Conn. • Waterville, Maine • London • Munich Contents Plan of the Series xxvii Introduction xxix Acknowledgments xxxiii Permissions xxxiv Books by James Gould Cozzens 3 Chronology 5 I. Youth and Confusion 9 Early Years 9 Brought Up in a Garden—from James Gould Cozzens's foreword to Roses of Yesterday (1967) Facsimile: Illustrated composition Facsimile: Staten Island Academy composition Two Poems-'The Andes," The Qwjfljanuary 1915, and "Lord Kitchener," Digby Weekly Courier, 16June1916 Kent School \ 15 A Democratic School-article by Cozzens, The Atlantic Monthly, March 1920 Emerson: "A Friendly Thinker"—essay by Cozzens, Kent Quarterly, December 1920 Books That Mattered—list of books Cozzens submitted to Christian Century, 22 August 1962 Harvard 19 The Trust in Princes-poem by Cozzens, Harvard Advocate, 1 November 1922 Remember the Rose—story by Cozzens, Harvard Advocate, 1 June 1923 A First Novel 22 Facsimile: Epigraph for Confusion Some Putative Facts of Hard Record or He Commences Authour Aetatis Suae 19-20-Cozzens letter to Matthew J. Bruccoli The Birth of Cerise: from Confusion Facsimile: Pages from Cozzens's 1923 diary: 24 February, 13 March, and 17 October The Death of Cerise: from Confusion Reception of Confusion 31 Harvard Undergrad, at 19, Has 'Best Seller' Accepted-Boston Traveller, 1 April 1924 ; Beebe Celebrates Cozzens-from The Lucius Beebe Reader and Beebe's review of Cozzens's novel in the Boston Telegram, 8 April 1924 A Voice From Young Harvard-C.
    [Show full text]
  • REDISCOVERING CIVIL WAR CLASSICS:Shiloh: a Novel
    Civil War Book Review Fall 2005 Article 3 REDISCOVERING CIVIL WAR CLASSICS:Shiloh: A Novel David Madden Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cwbr Recommended Citation Madden, David (2005) "REDISCOVERING CIVIL WAR CLASSICS:Shiloh: A Novel," Civil War Book Review: Vol. 7 : Iss. 4 . Available at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cwbr/vol7/iss4/3 Madden: REDISCOVERING CIVIL WAR CLASSICS:Shiloh: A Novel Feature Essay Madden, David Fall 2005 Foote, Shelby REDISCOVERING CIVIL WAR CLASSICS:Shiloh: A Novel. Dial Press, 1951; Reprinted by Vintage Books, 1980, Shelby Foote at the Cross Roads of Our Being The Civil War was the crossroads of our being as a nation, wrote Shelby Foote, standing at that crossroads as the author of The Civil War, the now classic three volume narrative. Having finished that monumental history, Shelby Foote the novelist stood at his own crossroads as a writer. He took on the Civil War as a job of work. Having published Foote's Shiloh, one of the shortest novels of the war, Random House asked him to write a short history of the war. Such symmetry must have been appealing to publisher and author, assuming great appeal for readers. But the war is a web, and if you touch it at any pointà. So six years after Shiloh, volume I appeared, almost 20 times longer than Foote's novel. In 1963, volume II appeared at the high water mark of the Civil War Centennial, amid a flood of other, and shorter, histories. Labored upon as long as the first two together, Volume III appeared in 1974, when interest in the war was at low tide.
    [Show full text]