What It Is Like To Go To War Analysis

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What it is like to go to War by Karl Marlantes is an extremely captivating story about what the war is like during and what the veterans who return home have to go through. It was a very intriguing read and gave the reader an inside look on the struggles of combat veterans that come back from war and have to readjust to society. After watching someone die daily and being wounded by a grenade himself, Marlantes’, received several medals for his actions including the Navy Cross, one of the highest combat awards. He treads carefully between the warrior as ‘hero’ and warrior as ‘victim,’ taking pains to articulate the diversity of his experience – the profound accomplishment he felt at receiving awards, in stark contrast to the frigid welcome back America He seems to have done research on top of his experience of war firsthand along with returning home after the war. He says that …show more content…

He does this by letting them know they need to be prepared psychologically and emotionally for the real possibility that they will be killing people. They need to recognize that combat can be thrilling and even enjoyable and need to be given tools to help with the coping of any feelings of shame. Even Marlantes himself confessed that he had a certain enjoyment from the thrill of combat and reflects on the sadness he now feels in retrospect. The military does also need to do a better job of “detoxifying” veterans when they return home. Marlantes finds tragic fault in the military’s unwillingness and inability to address the experience of returning veterans, and he proposes more extensive therapeutic acknowledgement for them. Returning home from war is something I could never imagine having to do and Marlantes has firsthand experience and does a good job of letting the reader and society as a whole know what they can do in helping with veterans that have returned

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