War Is Hell Analysis

War is hell. Three simple words yet more than enough to convey the message. War is not some grandiose adventure where the young soldier is some type of invincible protagonist with a noble cause. It is not some fairy tale that will inevitably have a happy ending after enduring countless hardships and struggles. War is undeniably hell. Monstrosities and wanton cruelty are fostered from this senseless drive for violence. The very best humanity has to offer may enter proudly just to end up shipped back home in a body bag or worse. They could return as an entirely different person. The experience of witnessing and committing such atrocities is enough to turn the sanest individual into the next Joker. Unfortunately, this repugnance to violence is

At the start, Taylor was a naive, young man. He willingly enlisted because he thought it was not fair for only the poor kids to serve their country. His fellow soldiers laughed at his idealistic approach, replying that they would love to be anywhere but here. In his first patrol, he vomited from seeing his first dead body, intimidated by a snake, passed out from heat and dehydration, and forgot to pull out the claymore’s safety. This man is the opposite of what a soldier should be. In an ideal scenario, a soldier should be strong and cunning, not an innocent newbie. Nonetheless, as the story progress, his admirable characteristics begin to degenerate. A prime exemplar of this is when he started firing his gun near the feet of a one-legged villager and cursing at him. He was fed up with the entire situation as noted in a letter to his grandma, “Day by day, I struggle to maintain not only my strength, but my sanity… I don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong anymore.” Luckily, he was able to maintain his principles as he stops firing and refused to injure the boy, despite his fellow soldiers encouraging him to. This proves that he still has some degree of right and wrong, even with all the violence he’s seen. He displays this behavior multiple times afterwards when he condemns his fellow soldiers raping women, killing innocent civilians, and fraggings. Regrettably, this all changed when Barnes fragged Eliot. Although Taylor wanted justice for Eliot, there was no lawful way to persecute Barnes for his crimes (the captain is in cahoots with Barnes). Earlier in the film, Rhah, a fellow soldier, made a statement concerning on how to avenge Elias: “The only one who can kill Barnes… is Barnes.” This means that only another individual with a lack of principles can kill Barnes. Therefore, Taylor would need to become the epitome of what he hated if he wanted