30 pages • 1 hour read
Eugene SledgeWith the Old Breed
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1981A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Valor and Endurance
For Sledge, the ability to endure the constant pain and hardship of war constitutes a type of valor. He doesn’t celebrate those, like Mac, who claims to be eager for the kill and utterly without fear. Instead, he documents all the tireless work the Marines do, all the lugging of ammo and rations in hostile, muddy terrain, and the dangerous recovery of wounded men, all as part and parcel of the bravery of these men serving in the Marines. Life is almost always arduous for his company, as they often lack water and edible food, have to deal with rain and heat, and are periodically afflicted with serious maladies, such as trench foot, hepatitis, and malaria. He credits the perseverance of the men he served with, stating, “valor was displayed so often it went largely unnoticed. It was expected” (315). He does not note any particular heroes. Instead, he praises the company as a whole for their dedication to one another.
War Ethics
The first time Sledge witnesses souvenir hunting, seeing Marines extract gold teeth out of the mouths of Japanese corpses, he is horrified. Later, though, he comes very close to joining them in this practice. He is glad that Doc Caswell talks him out of doing so. Shortly thereafter, Sledge encourages a fellow Marine not to hang on to the severed-hand souvenir that the man planned on taking back to the States with him. War ethics, for the author, includes treating the deceased of both sides with dignity. He is horrified when he comes upon mutilated Marine corpses and is disgusted when Mac urinates on Japanese bodies. He grieves for those Marines that go unburied on the field of Okinawa because there are simply too many bodies and not enough opportunities to recover them. Towards the end of the war, when his company encounters a group of Japanese POWs, he recounts how eager his fellow Marines were to attack them but that they were reminded of the Geneva Code in time. Though the author is often angry and filled with hate for the Japanese enemy, he is able to distinguish between the two overarching sides of the conflict and the individuals that comprise those two sides. He is curious about and compassionate towards the civilians they encounter.
Sanity and Madness
The author speculates multiple times on what constitutes sane and reasonable behavior during war. He also seeks to find ways to preserve his own state of mind. Prayer, at times, does this. At other moments, connecting with friends and sharing stories about their upbringing helps that author retain his sanity and humanity. As he passes long, tense nights in his foxhole, Sledge wonders about the longstanding psychological impact of war. Letters from home bring some solace, but also disorientation and confusion, as peaceful, ordinary life fails to mesh with the constant stress of combat.
