Throughout Going After Cacciato, I have noticed I sense of "nothingness" within the soldiers. It seems as though they feel numb to their surroundings. Why is this?
Mr. Crotty gave me his thoughts on the topic today in class while we were broken into groups. He gave me another sports analogy. He compared it to a volleyball game, but his point could be taken in any context. He told me to think about what it feels like to be locked into a game of volleyball: so focused on do what you have to do to win that you don't think about anyting else. Then he said to imagine that you had be in that mind set all day every day. It would be physically and emotionally draining.
Such is the case in the lives of soldiers and in particular the lives of a soldier in Vietnam. With the abundance of booby traps and guerilla warfare tactics, soldier had to be on edge and alert constantly. The difference between the sports analogy and Vietnam is that most of the time in Vietnam, as we see in Going After Cacciato, they hardly ever get a release of that tension.
There is one chapter that describes how at one point, everything followed a pattern; they knew when to be prepared and when to relax. then, however, came a lull in the action. To fill the void, the soldiers played basketball, but it merely achieved temporary distraction. The final release of this tension came when on of their own men got killed by a mine.
This topic made me think about the series Band of Brothers. I am sure many of you have seen it. At one point, a higher ranking officer tells a new recruit that he will not be an effective soldier until he accepts the fact he is already dead, because if he holds onto the hope of staying alive he will not be able to maintain composier under pressure.
In Going After Cacciato, it seems as though the men still have the hope of making it through the war and the tremendous stress on their psyches makes them unable to maintain composier. However, their panic is strictly mental. They express it through being supoerficially numb, but in reality, tremendously afraid.
7 comments:
i can't imagine how draining the life of a soldier would be; as students who live quite comfortably (as far as i'm aware), none of us probably does. Few of us have been in a situation in which our life was truly endangered for a full 24 hours--or a full week--or a full month.
i've never seen Band of Brothers (must be a guy movie?), but i think that quote is very appropriate here.
Just a quick point, this constant need to be 'on edge' that drained soldiers both mentally and physically is often, in my opinion, depicted in no better fashion than a picture of an American soldier giving the "Thousand Mile Stare". Just the sight of a man, seemingly staring at nothing, with absolutely no expression in his face, says volumes. It shows both his mental and physical fatigue, something all of us will most likely never understand. There is a very famous picture that illustrates this, it's a picture of an American soldier in Vietnam (most likely very accessible through Google) that will say more than I could ever hope to in a blog comment.
And Tess, Band of Brothers is a mini-series that I strongly recommend, even to a girl
P.S. Go panthers
I agree it seems as thought the soldiers are just going through the motions required to get through the day alive. It must have been extremely exhausting to constantly be on "edge" 24/7 due to the guerilla warfare tactics which were being used against american soldiers. Great post, very interesting take on the book.
Your final point is really interesting and true. I agree that the true "numbness" comes from the soldiers having to confront death. Ultimately, the fact that one of their own men was killed makes death so much more real. I would assume that it would be impossible to live life regularly after something like this because a person would start dealing with their own mortality. I think the silence and the preoccupied nature of the soldiers is a product of this, like you say in your post.
I really like that volleyball analogy. I never thought of that in those kind of terms, however it makes perfect sense. When you have to exert so much mental energy as well as physical endurance, it takes a massive toll on the soldiers.
War is often associated with large explosions and countless casualties, but this book focuses on the inactive or stalled parts of the Vietnam War. People never consider the severity of inactivity and the impact it has on a man. These soldiers are looking for a release of their emotions and feelings, yet cannot find any action or activity that allows them to feel anything. They just continue to walk without a purpose or reason. They are like zombies that keep on walking without emotion or feelings. Soldiers are confronted with fear and death in war, but they are also forced to be mentally tough and deal with the long spans of non combat activity.
To think of how tolling the life of a soldier would be is frightening. Each day passing by, on alert, always in danger. Being simple students allows us the pleasure of living leisurely lives but imagining being scared for ones own life everyday is sad
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