Jarhead Quotes

Allison Greenberg

Zane

HIS121

December 12, 2015

Anthony Swofford was a marine in the 90’s in the Gulf War sniper platoon who felt the need to inform readers about a typical marine’s own internal and external day-to-day experiences in his novel, Jarhead. He is the narrator of his novel but also includes stories of his marine brothers and what he is consuming of all that is happening around him. Swofford describes plenty of incidences throughout the story that relate to an ample amount of issues we continually see throughout history that are still occurring today. Concepts like oppression, identity, privilege, sexuality, and how social institutions can shape an individual. Our society plays a big part in relation to all of these issues. Even

Filmic images of death and carnage are pornography for the military man; with film you are stroking his cock, tickling his balls with the pink feather of history, getting him ready for his real First Fuck.” (Swofford 7) Swafford uses this quote to describe what it was like watching the Vietnam War films that people claim are anti-war, he disagrees. He explains in this quote how all of these things that a “sane” human being, as society would say, would typically disgust them. The marines actually found great pleasure in watching these films. They bonded together watching the disgraceful acts as well as living them. A lot of instances in this book they profanely discuss women in terms of prostitution and rape. “We’re carrying on our backs the overseas sins of generations of fighting American GIs--gang rapes in Vietnamese jungles, the same in Seoul and Pusan, pregnant Englishwoman abandoned after World War II, Japanese women raped and impregnated and abandoned during the occupation, thousands of French whores filled with syphilitic cocks while the Great War raged on.” (Swofford 92) Rape has been a part of war for centuries and people decide to avoid discussing it. From what we learned throughout the semester I think a lot of this has to do with the “brotherhood” of the marines. Together, it is a form of “joint power” with all their “male aggression,” We’ve learned that in history men like to bond over disrespecting women when they are

This is one major reason men are so compelled by the military as we learn about in reading Jarhead. A majority of Men, as well as women, will continue to go through the same internal issues that Swofford had to endure. There are families that have generations of members in the family that will serve in the military. I imagine because of the environment a child at home like Swofford went through. In the end, what Swofford did grow up thinking was a great plan for him, he left with a bit of disappointment, but he clearly learned a lot about himself to proceed to write this story. He wrote this informative novel to provide an actual combat experience for readers that doesn’t transfer watching it on TV. As history will always repeat itself, and we will always have the USMC I think this book is beneficial for everybody to read to get a full understanding of the oppression, identity, privilege, and sexuality issues that the military had brought to the light for Swofford and the struggle that comes of this in ones