Happy Family
The novel begins with Joe thinking about his parents at two different points in their life. Towards the end of the first chapter, he remembers how happy they were and how they would fondly recall their courtship. Joe’s parents seemed to be then the embodiment of happiness and loyalty, a love meant to last for a long time. This image contrasts with the one described in the beginning of the novel, a sad family torn apart by Joe’s father’s death, an event that affected not only Joe’s mother, but Joe and his siblings as well. Through these two episodes, the narrator paints the picture of a united and happy family.
Idyllic Childhood
In the second chapter, the picture of an idyllic childhood is evoked. The narrator describes Joe’s childhood and how he spend his time playing end exploring the surrounding areas, how he then grew up and became interested in girls and would spend his time with them. Everything is surrender by a sense of normality and calmness and the war seems to be far away from their life. This changes however when Joe’s family moves to Los Angeles and the happy family is forced to deal with the cruel reality.
Clash of Values
In the third chapter, Joe remembers the day he went to war and how his mother, siblings, girlfriend and his girlfriend’s father came to see him off. The train station was packed with families and brave men going off to war, men ready to give their life for a cause they believed in. These heroic young men were the image of patriotism and these young men were often put on a pedestal and looked up to. But also there, among the brave men who willingly agreed to go to war, were those whose only reason for going to war was because they were promised to be let out of prison and pardoned for what they had done. This image created in the third chapter presents the war as not being something fought only by the brave and wiling but also by those who have an ulterior motive, a selfish motive.
The Image of War
In the fifth chapter, Joe falls into a deep sleep again and he dreams about being on the battlefield. There, he discovered the body of a soldier whose face was being eaten away by a rat. The soldier died a few weeks before and thus it was in an advanced state of decomposition. The body was not removed from the battlefield thus pointing towards the fact that a soldier’s life had no value during a war. They were sent into the battle to fight until they died or were too wounded to do that anymore and after that they were either abandoned or bed ridden for the rest of their lives. This image of war is different from the way the leaders of the country wanted it to be portrayed. They glamorized the war, made it more attractive so people would go willingly and risk their lives in unimaginable conditions. What is more, Joe is unable to tell the truth about the war because he can no longer talk or communicate with the outside world. All he can do is replay the gruesome images over and over in his mind.
