American Sniper Thesis

Chris Kyle, “The American Sniper,” was a United States Navy SEAL and, to date, the most deadly sniper in U.S. history. Chris Kyle served four tours in the Iraq War, expending 160 kills, which were confirmed by the Department of Defense. The life of Chris Kyle was portrayed in the 2014 film, American Sniper, as well as the 2012 book, American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History, written by Kyle himself. Kyle’s 160 kills surely came at a certain cost; each kill brought him more and more distress, which would eventually lead to his difficulty re-acclimating back to civilian life. In Kyle’s book, he depicts a scene where a “peeker,” the type of person Kyle refers to as someone who “peeks out, glances around,

The reason that he was able to re-acclimate to civilian life was solely based upon the fact that he didn't kill the child. Dr. Jonathan Shay states that veterans can “usually recover from horror, fear, and grief once they return to civilian life, so long as “what’s right” has not also been violated and in this case, by not killing the child, Kyle did not violate anything labeled ‘not right’ (20). In today’s world, although murder is completely immoral and wrong, the murder of a child is probably at the top of the list of being immoral and wrong; this is shown by how Kyle is able to shoot countless men but is unable to shoot one child. Because Kyle didn't shoot the child, he did not commit a moral injury and therefore was able to re-acclimate to life after war. Shay’s assertion that veterans can “usually recover from horror, fear, and grief once they return to civilian life,” is correct in that Kyle is eventually able to re-join society because by not killing the child, he didn't commit a moral wrongdoing and therefore didn’t need to be cured of a moral injury; he only needed to recover from the obvious grief and fear that most veterans

Jonathan Shay’s point that “moral injury is an essential part of any combat trauma that leads to lifelong psychological injury” and that veterans can “usually recover from horror, fear, and grief once they return to civilian life, so long as “what’s right” has not also been violated (20). In The Iliad, the death of Patroclus can be inferred to be the fault of Achilles because in spite of his own pride, he refuses to help the Greeks and therefore, allows Patroclus to be killed. The death of Patroclus is a moral injury for Achilles because Achilles is unable to recover, even after killing countless Trojans, because he blames himself for the death of his beloved friend. On the other hand, Chris Kyle not killing the child allowed him to avoid having to recover from a moral injury. Unlike Achilles, Chris Kyle did not commit a moral wrongdoing, so he was able to recover from the horrors of war and re-enter civilian life. The two example, Achilles and Chris Kyle, are complete opposites in that Achilles is unable to recover and re-acclimate into life because he experienced a moral injury but Kyle is able recover and re-acclimate into civilian life because he did not experience a moral injury. Shay’s assertion that central to a veteran’s successful re-acclimation to civilian life is the cure to a moral injury, is an accurate statement to describe soldiers’ mentalities during war, as shown through Achilles’ rage over the death of