Literary Analysis of James Albert Michener’s Novel Tales from the South Pacific

2509 Words6 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Gender roles during world war 2

The men stationed in the Pacific Theatre of World War II faced many challenges and hardships. The fighting that occurred with the Japanese far surpassed the level of brutality in the European theatre. Some American military units faced relentless fighting throughout the entire war, while other units waited for the entire war for orders to deploy into combat, and never actually saw any action. Only a few stories surrounding both ends of the spectrum of men in the Pacific Theatre exist, and even a fewer number do the men and women that served during that time justice. One of these authors who captured the nature of life during World War II in the Pacific Theatre, James Michener, did so in the novel Tales of the South Pacific. Michener not only offers an in-depth perspective of life during the time, but also brings up key themes of issues that existed during that period. He introduced a new outlook on the South Pacific during World War II, showing that a variety of people scattered around the Pacific joined for the common goal of a successful military operation. The primary purpose for this collection of tales from around the South Pacific focused on telling the tale of everyone who spent the war there. Michener used varying points of view within the plot line to strengthen this point. Within the main focus he brings up three themes: the first being of camaraderie and fellowship, the second the issues of power struggle, and finally racism in World War II. Michener utilizes diction to help characterize individuals to help literary convey these three themes. James Albert Michener brings up the issues of racism and power struggle in the South Pacific, while portraying the men that lived there during that period and the fellowship they s...

... middle of paper ...

...ale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Silver. Gale. EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL. 16 Feb. 2010 .

Ikari, M. "History and Story: Unconventional History in Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient and James A. Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific." History & Theory 41.4 (2002): 43-55. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 16 Feb. 2010.

McGuigan, Cathleen. "Theater Of War." Newsweek 151.14 (2008): 52-53. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 28 Mar. 2010.

Michener, James A. Tales of the South Pacific. New York, NY: Fawcett Books, 1973.

Mills, Nicolaus. "Reviving James Michener: The Relevance of South Pacific." Dissent (00123846) 2008: 85+. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 16 Feb. 2010.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Vietnam Bloods By Wallace Terry

    662 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wallace Terry has collected a wide range of stories told by twenty black Vietnam veterans. The stories are varied based on each experience; from the horrific to the heart breaking and to the glorified image of Vietnam depicted by Hollywood. Wallace Terry does not insinuate his opinion into any of the stories so that the audience can feel as if they are having a conversation with the Vietnam Veteran himself. Terry introduces the purpose of the book by stating, “ Among the 20 men who portray their war and postwar experiences in this book. I sought a representative cross section of the black combat force.”(p. XV) Although the stories in this book were not told in any specific order, many themes became prominent throughout the novel such as religion, social, and health.

    Read More

  • War without Mercy

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Dower's War without Mercy describes the ugly racial issues, on both the Western Allies and Japanese sides of the conflict in the Pacific Theater as well as all of Asia before during and after World War II and the consequences of these issues on both military and reconstruction policy in the Pacific. In the United States as well as Great Britain, Dower dose a good job of proving that, "the Japanese were more hated than the Germans before as well as after Pearl Harbor." (8) On this issue, there was no dispute among contemporary observers including the respected scholars and writers as well as the media. During World War II the Japanese are perceived as a race apart, a species apart referred to as apes, but at the same time superhuman. "There was no Japanese counterpart to the "good German" in the popular consciousness of the Western Allies." (8) Dower is not trying to prove how horrible the Japanese are. Instead, he is examining the both sides as he points out, "atrocious behavior occurred on all sides in the Pacific War." (12-13) Dower explores the propaganda of the United States and Japanese conflict to underline the "patterns of a race war," and the portability of racist stereotypes. Dower points out that "as the war years themselves changed over into an era of peace between Japan and the Allied powers, the shrill racial rhetoric of the early 1940s revealed itself to be surprisingly adaptable. Idioms that formerly had denoted the unbridgeable gap between oneself and the enemy proved capable of serving the goals of accommodation as well."(13) "the Japanese also fell back upon theories of "proper place" which has long been used to legitimize inequitable relationships within Japan itself."(9) After...

    Read More

  • Irony in Tim O’Brien’s How to Tell a True War Story

    2118 Words  | 5 Pages

    O’Brien, Tim. “How To Tell a True War Story.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2003. p. 420-429.

    Read More

  • The Heroes of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried

    1963 Words  | 4 Pages

    King, Rosemary. "O'Brien's 'How to Tell a True War Story.'" The Explicator. 57.3 (1999): 182. Expanded Academic ASAP.

    Read More

  • When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip

    1578 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mintz, Steven, and Sara McNeil. "The War's Consequences." Digital History. Ed. John Lienhard, Grace Lin, and Micharl Rapp. Digital History, 2013. Web. 6 May 2014.

    Read More

  • Brian Turner's The Hurt Locker

    2149 Words  | 5 Pages

    Hicks, Patrick. "War, Literature and the Arts." War, Literature and the Arts. An International Journal of the Humanitie, n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2013. .

    Read More

  • History Wars: Recognition of Indigenous Australians

    1851 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the nineteenth century, the “History wars” became the fight between the most prominent historians revolving around the deception of frontier conflict between the labor and coalition. The debate aroused from the different interpretations of the violence that took place during the European colonization and to what degree. It became a crisis in history, emerging from the dispossession of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI) that resulted in exclusion of their traditions and culture. The ATSI were the first people of Australia that brought along a different culture, language, kinship structures and a different way of life (Face the Facts, 2012). Post European colonization was a time where the ATSI people experienced disadvantage in the land they called home. With the paramount role as future educators, it demands proficient knowledge on the Australian history and one of the most influential moments in our history started from the first European settlers.

    Read More

  • Embracing Defeat by John Dower

    3331 Words  | 7 Pages

    John Dower's "Embracing Defeat" truly conveys the Japanese experience of American occupation from within by focusing on the social, cultural, and philosophical aspects of a country devastated by World War II. His capturing of the Japanese peoples' voice let us, as readers, empathize with those who had to start over in a "new nation."

    Read More

  • The Culture of Thin Bites Fiji by Ellen Goodman

    766 Words  | 2 Pages

    Goodman, Ellen. “The Culture of Thin Bites Fiji”. Everything’s an Argument. 6th ed. Boston Bedford St. Martin’s, 2013. Print.

    Read More

  • How to Tell a True War Story by Tim O'brien

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    O’Brien, Tim. How to Tell a True War Story. Literature and Ourselves. Sixth Edition. Eds.

    Read More

  • Myth of Courage Exposed in The Things They Carried

    2673 Words  | 6 Pages

    King, Rosemary. "O'Brien's 'How to Tell a True War Story.'" The Explicator. 57.3 (1999): 182. Expanded Academic ASAP.

    Read More

  • The World War II: Air War

    1189 Words  | 3 Pages

    O'Neill, William L. World War II: A Student Companion. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. Print.

    Read More

  • The Truth About War Revealed in the Film, The Thin Red Line

    2138 Words  | 5 Pages

    Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line (1998) is a film that examines the Guadalcanal Battle of World War II, looking past the physical results of the violence, in order to uncover the deeper truths and ramifications of war. The film conveys themes and ideologies that are somewhat uncommon to war films, especially WW II films. In this dark, surreal, journey, Malick takes us inside the minds of soldiers experiencing this battle to capture a remote pacific island from the Japanese. We do not hear or see gruff, hardened soldiers, anxious to die for their country. In fact, there are no heroes in The Thin Red Line. There are only regular men, scared of fighting and scared of dying, who have been thrown into a situation that will forever change their lives. The fighting is not suspenseful or glorious just brutal. Using an ideological approach to the study of film, this paper will examine The Thin Red Line’s messages about the truths of war, and how it challenges our society’s stereotypical view of war as a valiant undertaking where brave men fighting for good battle the evil of the enemy. Consequently, the ideologies that are uncovered will then be used to look at The Thin Red Line as a war film, and how it fits and does not fit into the genre.

    Read More

  • Individuals That Contributed To The Civil War

    1908 Words  | 4 Pages

    Woodworth, Steven E. Davis and Lee at War. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. 1995.

    Read More

  • The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

    1445 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jones, Peter G, War and the Novelist: Appraising the American war Novel. University of Missouri Press, 1976. 5-6. Rpt. in Literary Themes for Students, War and Peace. Ed. Anne Marie Hacht. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 449-450. Print.

    Read More

More about Literary Analysis of James Albert Michener’s Novel Tales from the South Pacific

Open Document