War And Violence In Irwin Shaw's Work

"Writers of fiction, when they begin, are more likely to try the short form" (Shaw)

-Irwin Shaw

Irwin Shaw, an American playwright, screen writer, and novelist, enjoyed writing short stories. Assisting The New Yorker, Esquire, The Saturday Evening Post, and a 700-page book with his short works, Shaw has established himself as a professional in his field. His stories ranged from the chant of social significance, to the tales of laborers and struggling families, and finally a mix of irony and poignancies. During these phases, as Herbert Ruhm wrote in National Review, he still "consistently remained on a high level of craftsmanship". (CAO (count as crit lit?)). A continuing theme of Shaw's short fiction is war and violence. The cause of war and violence usually comes from opposing ideologies. Irwin Shaw expresses the suffering, growing tension, and hatred that arise from opposing ideologies which was felt by many people during World War II.

It is easy to depict the theme of suffering that appears

When he killed the Nazi SS major he felt good, relieving some of his tension and thinking, "How many Jews has this man killed, how fitting it is that I've killed him" (Shaw 253). It meant a lot for Seeger to take the major's Luger because "it belonged to one of those responsible for the camps, a murderer of Jews who was vanquished by Seeger himself." (Heaton) It is clear that Shaw is writing about is the “the never-ending, wolfish war of man on man” (Davis). He also recollects an American naval officer that said he hated Jews because Jews wanted the Germans beaten first, starving the Pacific forces of supplies and men. After the officer said that, another man told him he was a Jew, to which the naval officer replied "'Mister, the Constitution of the United States says I have to serve in the same Navy with Jews, but it doesn't say I have to eat at the same table with them'" (Shaw