Doing Battle again
Wages of War went into a lot of depth about difficulties that veterans had when they reemerged back in society but Doing Battle allowed me to understand the troubles soldiers faced. By this point in the book, the reader has gotten to know Paul Fussell both before and during the war. I expected his fate to be similar to other soldiers we had learned about. Combat exhaustion, poverty, and social isolation came into a whole new light as I saw the change in the character that had been developed in previous chapters. Fussell was deeply troubled with his own guilt. He asked himself “How could I justify my life?” upon reading memoirs of Tobias Wolff. Fussell wondered why he was still alive and why so many others were dead. I found his college life after the war particularly interesting as well. Now, the author explained “[I was] in an entirely different spirit than before. This time, no playful boyisms: rather a serious search for answers to overwhelming questions and deep annoyance with intrusions and diversions that might interrupt that process.”
When I read the passage on pages 178-181 about Fussell’s interest and passion with war-time poetry I was reminded of a friend of my father’s. The man, now in his 70s published a book of his own poetry about his reflections to the Korean War which he fought in. I was surprised by both Fussell and this local man because both came off has having very tough exteriors. Seeing and reading about grown men, moved to tears by poetry of combat, gives one a scene of how damaging war really is psychologically.
Although Fussell’s piece can be used as a great learning tool, we, as readers, have to keep in mind that his piece is undoubtedly bias. This is one reason it is important to read more than one primary source when researching. One example of this was when Fussell was talking about his classmates as being military snobs. Although this may have been how the author saw these people and himself, it most likely wasn’t this way everywhere. His comparison of classroom professors and sergeants would be seen differently depending on who was observing it. A non-military person probably would not have seen this comparison.
October 22nd, 2007 at 2:22 pm
I agree! Though we might never experience war first hand, I think we have a good enough sense of how devastating it is by the simple fact that grown men will cry when they read anything that reminds them of it. I cannot say I fully understand how moving it is to them since I was not in battle, but I know that for me personally, it takes something especially moving to bring me to tears.