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Themes In Philip Caputo's Rumor Of War

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In Rumor of War, the author, Philip Caputo, brings many themes and concepts of The Vietnam War to the table. These points are thoroughly supported throughout the rest of the novel. Philip Caputo’s first hand experience, which was laid out in his 1977 memoir, is simply about war. Every aspect was described in it such as the things men do in war, and the things war does to them. It is about his service, at the young age of twenty, in the United States Marine Corps. He entered the war because he thought he could be a hero, due to the large amounts of propaganda, and the fact that he thought it was going to be a quick war. He was wrong. Philip Caputo illustrates the unique experience of war. The author shows what the soldiers go through physically and mentally by evolving them as a person, while shaping their morals and values of life. Caputo joined the Marines in 1960, because he was tired of the dullness that Westchester Illinois brought to him. He was a college kid that was just simply bored. He was sick of the safe suburban life, he wanted something exciting, dangerous, and adventurous. Not having enough tuition to stay in college and almost flunking out, he found himself at a community college, Loyola. He …show more content…

He wants to kill every VC in sight, his thoughts were becoming vicious just like the war. A boy brought news to him that two Vietcong soldiers are hiding in a village. Hearing this news and not being in the right mindset, Caputo sends his team to kill the enemy soldiers. One was shot on sight, but the other guy, the boy who brought the news to Caputo, was captured and tried to runaway and was then shot down. After finding out that he had killed innocent civilians, he was brought to court on the count of two murder charges. He struggles with not telling the truth, the truth he wanted to say was, they were taught to kill. He had to plead guilty and he received an honorable

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Walking with his battalion down a trail, Caputo thinks about all the men who have died and about his possible death, where he says, “Thousands of people died in each week in the war, and the sum of all their deaths did not make any difference. The war went on without them, so it would go on without me” (Caputo 260). Thinking that he could possibly die at anytime, Caputo reflects on his actions he took within the war, and comes to a conclusion that even though he had numerous accomplishments within the war, he still felt that he didn’t make enough of a difference and that the war would still go on without him as it has with others dying. Additionally, he also uses a metaphor to further develop his mindset, in which he states, “Certainly, I had no illusions that my death, if it came, would be a sacrifice. It would merely be a death, and not a good one either …

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