Swofford Farewell To Arms Quotes Analysis

- “Dettmann is shaking his head no as he speaks. Snot runs from his nose. “This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My rifle is my best friend. Without me, my rifle is nothing. Without my rifle, I am nothing. (Jarhead, Swofford)”” When reading this section of the book, you can tell that Swofford is changing from the person he was before he joined the Marines, he now feels that without the rifle, he is nothing. That the rifle is apart of his identify and allows himself to have the strength and power within himself through the extension of the rifle.

- When using the piece of tape over his mouth with a money sign over it was to represent the conversation with Staff Sergeant Siek, as he said ““Staff Sergeant Siek says,

In the book, one of the quotes that really represents this internal feeling he has about himself is when he says ““Like most good and great marines, I hated the Corps. I hated being a marine because more than all of the things in the world I wanted to be—smart, famous, sexy, oversexed, drunk, fucked, high, alone, famous, smart, known, understood, loved, forgiven, oversexed, drunk, high, smart, sexy—more than all of those things, I was a marine. A jarhead. A grunt (Jarhead,

As he said in the book, “This initial impulse had nothing to do with a desire for combat, for killing, or for a heroic death, but rather was based on my intense need for acceptance into the family clan of manhood. By joining the Marine Corps and excelling within the severely disciplined enlisted ranks, I would prove both my manhood and the masculinity of the line. Also, by enlisting as an infantry grunt I was outdoing my brother, who’d spent his first few years in the army learning a practical vocation, teeth cleaning. Even before I hit puberty, Jeff and I had been in competition for the dominant male role just junior to our father’s (Jarhead, Swofford)”. This is important because it shows how society has standard when it comes to children having approval from their parents and leaving the social norms of the society. His father believes that you must prove yourself so that others may see you as a man and the best way for Swofford and his brother to do this was to enter the