Three Soldiers by John Dos Passos
World War I veteran ambulance driver writes this piece of historical fiction to show the journey of three soldiers through the war. The book is written with some obvious antiwar bias. He does a great job of showing the dehumanizing factors that go into fighting a war and, in turn, make war obsolete. Some of the key characters in the story are the "Y" men. These men played the role of political chaplain. It was their job to expound upon the soldiers the value and importance of fighting to defend democracy:
"You must remember that you are a voluntary worker in the cause of democracy...You're doing this so that your children will be able to live peaceful."
This statement by a "Y" man shows an irony about the idea of using war to defend democracy. Dos Passos seems to show this irony as he protrays democracy as a peaceful type of society. From this reading, we can understand that war is obsolete because of the dehumanization that comes with it. The "Y" men are so entrenched in their idea that democracy needs to be defended that they forget that these young men are dying themselves.
The author writes the book using language that would be from the time. This makes it hard for a reader to follow and understand. Overall, I found the book to be an interesting piece of historical fiction. From a "beyond war" perspective, I found that the book took a little bit of thinking to come up with a theme. For me, the book uses the dehumanization to show that fighting war is obsolete. One failing, though, is that the author does not offer many other options to fighting besides showing soldiers desert.
"You must remember that you are a voluntary worker in the cause of democracy...You're doing this so that your children will be able to live peaceful."
This statement by a "Y" man shows an irony about the idea of using war to defend democracy. Dos Passos seems to show this irony as he protrays democracy as a peaceful type of society. From this reading, we can understand that war is obsolete because of the dehumanization that comes with it. The "Y" men are so entrenched in their idea that democracy needs to be defended that they forget that these young men are dying themselves.
The author writes the book using language that would be from the time. This makes it hard for a reader to follow and understand. Overall, I found the book to be an interesting piece of historical fiction. From a "beyond war" perspective, I found that the book took a little bit of thinking to come up with a theme. For me, the book uses the dehumanization to show that fighting war is obsolete. One failing, though, is that the author does not offer many other options to fighting besides showing soldiers desert.
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