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In his New York Times bestselling chronicle of military life, Anthony Swofford weaves his experiences in war with vivid accounts of boot camp, reflections on the marines, and remembrances of battles with lovers and family.
When the U.S. Marines—or “jarheads”—were sent to Saudi Arabia in 1990 for the Gulf War, Anthony Swofford was there. He lived in sand for six months; he was punished by boredom and fear; he considered suicide, pulled a gun on a fellow marine, and was targeted by both enemy and friendly fire. As engagement with the Iraqis drew near, he was forced to consider what it means to be an American, a soldier, a son of a soldier, and a man.
Swofford's tale is not a happy one, but one that is necessary for gleaning a complete concept of not only what war means but what it does to those in the thick of it. Swofford is the product of a military lineage. His grandfather fought in World War II, his father in Vietnam. Anthony himself grew up on a military base, and while his peers were dreaming of what college they might attend, he determined to follow his familial path -- not that his parents encouraged a military career for their son. In fact, on one occasion, his father escorted a Marine recruiter from the Swofford household. However, Anthony, terrified of failure in a "normal" life, was focused on a destiny that was out of his father's hands. As he confesses in his book, "I needed the Marine Corps to save me from the other life I'd fail at -- the life of a college boy hoping to find a girlfriend and later a job."
The life Swofford sought out ultimately entailed nearly getting killed in an Iraqi booby trap, being shot by both Americans and Iraqis, physical abuse by a sadistic drill instructor, suicidal thoughts, and nagging murderous impulses. Trained to kill, and sent to the Middle East to do just that, Swofford found himself aching to perform his function, nearly shooting a comrade in the process. According to Swofford, such violent behavior simply went hand in hand with life on the frontlines. "It's an extremely violent place," he explained in an interview with Powells.com. "You're a young man who's trained to kill. It's in your head every day. You live in a very strict environment, and part of the reason you extend that violence beyond running around the jungle with your M16, say, you extend it out into the town because it's safe. You end up getting into a fight with some college kids or whatever."
Fortunately, Swofford made it out of the Marines alive, and has decided to use his horrifying experiences to enlighten the public about the reality of war without filtering it through the soft gauze of media spin. The Gulf War was portrayed as a brief skirmish that left few U.S. casualties, but Jarhead tells a different tale, addressing the psychological casualties of war. The resulting memoir has received much praise from Esquire, The New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, Publisher's Weekly, to name a few. Jarhead has also been the subject of a major motion picture directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty; Road to Perdition) and starring Jake Gyllenhaal as "Swoff."
As for the real Swoff, he remains devoted to a personal crusade of educating others about military life, that very same life from which his father tried so hard to protect him. Swofford recently taught a class at Lewis and Clark College in the school's "Inventing America" program. Asking his students such thorny questions as "What is war worth and how much does it cost?" and "Is America worth fighting for?" has likely sparked the kind of debate one rarely encounters on the evening news.
"My first job after leaving the Marine Corps was as a bank teller, and a few months into it I was robbed at gunpoint. Then I quit. Down with guns."
"Some people in my family believe we are related to Francis Scott Key, and thus, F. Scott Fitzgerald, but this is not true."
"I prefer fish to steak."
"After a hard day of writing I love to cook. I am currently cooking regularly out of Batali, Boulud, and Pepin cookbooks. I still need recipes. I can walk to the market at four, shop, cook, and feed someone at nine o'clock. Then I've spent five hours away from the book, and this separation is good, and I've made something that is complete, perhaps, even, with lunch for the next day. And after eating I can revise the day's earlier work, while someone else washes the dishes."
Introduction
On August 2, 1990, Iraqi troops drive east to Kuwait City and start killing soldiers and civilians and capturing gold-heavy palaces and expensive German sedans — though it is likely that the Iraqi atrocities are being exaggerated by Kuwaitis and Saudis and certain elements of the U.S. government, so as to gather more coalition support from the UN, the American people, and the international community generally.
Also on August 2, my platoon — STA (pronounced stay), the Surveillance and Target Acquisition Platoon, scout/snipers, of the Second Battalion, Seventh Marines — is put on standby. We're currently stationed at Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base, in California's Mojave Desert.
After hearing the news of imminent war in the Middle East, we march in a platoon formation to the base barber and get fresh high-and-tight haircuts. And no wonder we call ourselves jarheads — our heads look just like jars.
Then we send a few guys downtown to rent all of the war movies they can get their hands on. They also buy a hell of a lot of beer. For three days we sit in our rec room and drink all of the beer and watch all of those damn movies, and we yell Semper fi and we head-butt and beat the crap out of each other and we get off on the various visions of carnage and violence and deceit, the raping and killing and pillaging. We concentrate on the Vietnam films because it's the most recent war, and the successes and failures of that war helped write our training manuals. We rewind and review famous scenes, such as Robert Duvall and his helicopter gunships during Apocalypse Now, and in the same film Martin Sheen floating up the fake Vietnamese Congo; we watch Willem Dafoe get shot by a friendly and left on the battlefield in Platoon; and we listen closely as Matthew Modine talks trash to a streetwalker in Full Metal Jacket. We watch again the ragged, tired, burnt-out fighters walking through the villes and the pretty native women smiling because if they don't smile, the fighters might kill their pigs or burn their cache of rice. We rewind the rape scenes when American soldiers return from the bush after killing many VC to sip cool beers in a thatch bar while whores sit on their laps for a song or two (a song from the fifties when America was still sweet) before they retire to rooms and fuck the whores sweetly. The American boys, brutal, young farm boys or tough city boys, sweetly fuck the whores. Yes, somehow the films convince us that these boys are sweet, even though we know we are much like these boys and that we are no longer sweet.
There is talk that many Vietnam films are antiwar, that the message is war is inhumane and look what happens when you train young American men to fight and kill, they turn their fighting and killing everywhere, they ignore their targets and desecrate the entire country, shooting fully automatic, forgetting they were trained to aim. But actually, Vietnam war films are all pro-war, no matter what the supposed message, what Kubrick or Coppola or Stone intended. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson in Omaha or San Francisco or Manhattan will watch the films and weep and decide once and for all that war is inhumane and terrible, and they will tell their friends at church and their family this, but Corporal Johnson at Camp Pendleton and Sergeant Johnson at Travis Air Force Base and Seaman Johnson at Coronado Naval Station and Spec 4 Johnson at Fort Bragg and Lance Corporal Swofford at Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base watch the same films and are excited by them, because the magic brutality of the films celebrates the terrible and despicable beauty of their fighting skills. Fight, rape, war, pillage, burn. Filmic images of death and carnage are pornography for the military man; with film you are stroking his cock, tickling his balls with the pink feather of history, getting him ready for his real First Fuck. It doesn't matter how many Mr. and Mrs. Johnsons are antiwar — the actual killers who know how to use the weapons are not.
We watch our films and drink our beer and occasionally someone begins weeping and exits the room to stand on the catwalk and stare at the Bullion Mountains, the treacherous, craggy range that borders our barracks. Once, this person is me. It's nearly midnight, the temperature still in the upper nineties, and the sky is wracked with stars. Moonlight spreads across the desert like a white fire. The door behind me remains open, and on the TV screen an ambush erupts on one of the famous murderous hills of Vietnam.
I reenter the room and look at the faces of my fellows. We are all afraid, but show this in various ways — violent indifference, fake ease, standard-issue bravura. We are afraid, but that doesn't mean we don't want to fight. It occurs to me that we will never be young again. I take my seat and return to the raging battle. The supposedly antiwar films have failed. Now is my time to step into the newest combat zone. And as a young man raised on the films of the Vietnam War, I want ammunition and alcohol and dope, I want to screw some whores and kill some Iraqi motherfuckers.
Copyright © 2003 by Anthony Swofford
This is a raw, irreverent, unforgettable memoir of military life. Swofford was not just a soldier who happened to write, but a writer who happened to be a soldier. His prose is sharp and vivid. In contrast to the real-time print and television coverage of the Gulf War, which was highly scripted by the Pentagon, Swofford's account is authentic, contrarian, and singular.
Throughout Jarhead, Swofford is a tormented consciousness, yet the tone of the memoir shows that his brief, searing war experience has provoked a yearning for reconciliation and the first hope for a new, inner peace.
Discussion Questions:
1. Why do you think Swofford joined the marines? What appealed to him, and what was he looking for?
2. How would you describe Swofford's temperament? How does it differ from the personalities of the other marines? And how does it affect his experience as a soldier?
3. What do you think of Swofford's girlfriend Kristina and their relationship?
4. Swofford shares the unfortunate story of a fellow soldier receiving videotape from his wife. Why do you think she sent that tape and what was your reaction?
5. At one point, Swofford describes placing the muzzle of his M16 in his mouth and visualizing his own death. Swofford writes of the incident, "The reasons are hard to name...It's not the suicide's job to know, only to do" (p. 70). What do you think is the nature of his despair? In this moment, how seriously does he consider suicide?
6. Discuss Swofford's relationship with Troy. How does his friendship and his death affect Swofford? What types of friendships does he build?
7. Although the book is largely populated by men, Swofford oftenreflects on his relationships with women, from his mother and sister to his various romantic entanglements. What role do you think women play in this book? What do you think Swofford's opinion of women is in general?
8. Discuss Swofford's portrayal of his relationship with his father, himself a veteran of the Vietnam War.
9. Swofford explains the Scout/Sniper shooting procedures in great detail (i.e.: the precise positions of the spotter relative to the shooter and the order in which the various steps are carried out), and he refers to ongoing arguments among spotters and shooters about who has the more difficult job. What is the significance of this near-obsessive procedural detail? How do you think it affects the soldiers' attitude toward the possibility of killing people?
10. "The sad truth is that when you're a jarhead, you're incapable of not being a jarhead, you are a symbol..."(page 119). What do you think about this statement? Would Troy, Fergus, and Swofford's fellow marines agree with this assessment?
11. When Swofford and his platoon arrive home in California, they encounter a disheveled Vietnam veteran. What do you think the veteran means when he says, "Thank you, thank you, Jarheads, for making them see we are not bad animals," (pg. 251)?
12. Discuss the significance of the dog tags Swofford takes from the bodies of three dead Iraqi soldiers. What do they mean to him? Why does he take them and wear them around his neck? How does he feel about Crocket desecrating the dead body of an Iraqi soldier? What do these violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice reveal?
13. Discuss the book's final paragraph: "What did I hope to gain? More bombs are coming. Dig your holes with the hands God gave you." How do you think the war changed Swofford?
14. Discuss Swofford's attitude toward war. How does it develop and change throughout the course of the book?
15. How do the experiences Swofford describes compare to media portrayals of soldier life in the present conflict in Iraq? How does the current war inform your reading of Jarhead? Has this changed your view of war?
This is a raw, irreverent, unforgettable memoir of military life. Swofford was not just a soldier who happened to write, but a writer who happened to be a soldier. His prose is sharp and vivid. In contrast to the real-time print and television coverage of the Gulf War, which was highly scripted by the Pentagon, Swofford's account is authentic, contrarian, and singular.
Throughout Jarhead, Swofford is a tormented consciousness, yet the tone of the memoir shows that his brief, searing war experience has provoked a yearning for reconciliation and the first hope for a new, inner peace.
Discussion Questions:
1. Why do you think Swofford joined the marines? What appealed to him, and what was he looking for?
2. How would you describe Swofford's temperament? How does it differ from the personalities of the other marines? And how does it affect his experience as a soldier?
3. What do you think of Swofford's girlfriend Kristina and their relationship?
4. Swofford shares the unfortunate story of a fellow soldier receiving videotape from his wife. Why do you think she sent that tape and what was your reaction?
5. At one point, Swofford describes placing the muzzle of his M16 in his mouth and visualizing his own death. Swofford writes of the incident, "The reasons are hard to name...It's not the suicide's job to know, only to do" (p. 70). What do you think is the nature of his despair? In this moment, how seriously does he consider suicide?
6. Discuss Swofford's relationship with Troy. How does his friendship and his death affect Swofford? What types of friendships does he build?
7. Although the book is largely populated by men, Swofford often reflects on his relationships with women, from his mother and sister to his various romantic entanglements. What role do you think women play in this book? What do you think Swofford's opinion of women is in general?
8. Discuss Swofford's portrayal of his relationship with his father, himself a veteran of the Vietnam War.
9. Swofford explains the Scout/Sniper shooting procedures in great detail (i.e.: the precise positions of the spotter relative to the shooter and the order in which the various steps are carried out), and he refers to ongoing arguments among spotters and shooters about who has the more difficult job. What is the significance of this near-obsessive procedural detail? How do you think it affects the soldiers' attitude toward the possibility of killing people?
10. "The sad truth is that when you're a jarhead, you're incapable of not being a jarhead, you are a symbol..."(page 119). What do you think about this statement? Would Troy, Fergus, and Swofford's fellow marines agree with this assessment?
11. When Swofford and his platoon arrive home in California, they encounter a disheveled Vietnam veteran. What do you think the veteran means when he says, "Thank you, thank you, Jarheads, for making them see we are not bad animals," (pg. 251)?
12. Discuss the significance of the dog tags Swofford takes from the bodies of three dead Iraqi soldiers. What do they mean to him? Why does he take them and wear them around his neck? How does he feel about Crocket desecrating the dead body of an Iraqi soldier? What do these violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice reveal?
13. Discuss the book's final paragraph: "What did I hope to gain? More bombs are coming. Dig your holes with the hands God gave you." How do you think the war changed Swofford?
14. Discuss Swofford's attitude toward war. How does it develop and change throughout the course of the book?
15. How do the experiences Swofford describes compare to media portrayals of soldier life in the present conflict in Iraq? How does the current war inform your reading of Jarhead? Has this changed your view of war?
JohnnyG71
Posted April 18, 2010
The most unnerving war book I ever read was E.B. Sledge's With the Old Breed, about World War II assaults on Plelieu and Okinawa. I thought no auithor to that point had yet told a tale so vibrantly, so bluntly, so openly. Then I read Jarhead. Different time, different war, for sure, but the author proves that the hellish things that warriors see in combat areas never change. Swofford's narrative also reminds one of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. His temporally disjointed memories hop from childhood to civilian life to active duty and back again, showing that the experiences that form a man's life are amazingly interrelated.
Swofford is no recruiting poster Marine, and according to his story, that man may not exist anyway. If he did, he would probably never be able to handle what is to be found on the battlefields U.S. Marines are called upon to visit.
Anonymous
Posted July 15, 2009
best ive read i recomend strongly
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Posted December 11, 2008
I Also Recommend:
Greatly done.........I can only imagine the life of a Marine, or any Military branch of service when it comes to 'happiness.' War is hell, it surely isn't something to be 'happy' about. Life is changed when you become a soldier. Every soldier has a story to tell, and we owe it to them for their bravery.
I often wondered how our service men and women cope,if they are fortunate to come back to the so-called world of 'sanity.' Is there such a thing as 'sanity?'
If you liked 'Jarhead,' you will definetly enjoy "I Hear No Bugles," by 'Robert Winston Mercy.'
Happy 'reading'
Brenda Wise, Leonardtown, Maryland, U.S.A.
Anonymous
Posted July 30, 2008
I believe this book is great no matter what branch of service your in, more so Army and Marines. Great POV on Grunts life. I've read this book atleast 4 times now and it gets better every time. I wish there could be more new age war books like this one but as of right now I believe this is the best.
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Posted January 23, 2008
I believe that this book gets as close as it can to how war really is. He is telling his own story and what he has seen and how he delt with everthing. It also tells how other people deal with things. Mens wifes or Girl friends leaving or cheeting on them really happens, when people go to war. I have to give it to them, with all this stuff happening they still fight for the United States of America.
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Posted December 4, 2007
Anthony Swofford¿s war was much different than what many picture when the word war comes to mind. There was no combat, and no killing, only a platoon of soldiers stuck in the desert preventing death from boredom. Swofford¿s platoon witnessed some of the most troublesome parts of war, the war at home. At one particular point, he illustrates that its all coming to an end and that he wishes it would but his band of brothers prevents this from happening. What this book is really about is the unity between men in service. Its really a great read and is not hard to understand. The one part that the reader may not understand is that this is really what war is like. The media only shows what parts of war is, the bad parts, the killing and sacrifice. Finally a book written from a soldiers point of view to show what war really is. It grips you within the first few pages and never lets go throughout the story. Swofford does a great job of illustrating every detail throughout the story, even his fantasies of what he wishes would happen. Certain times he describes events which are funny, and others that make you depressed. All in all I have to say this is one of the best novels I have read.
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Posted November 8, 2007
Jarhead by Anthony Swofford. This is a non-fiction book. I don¿t like this book because I think it¿s sad and focuses on the negative. It takes place on the Iranian border, during the Gulf War. A marine, Anthony Swofford is fighting in the Gulf War. He faces many challenges in the war. He also has to deal with his girlfriend who left him for a scrawny hotel clerk. Anthony can¿t do anything about his girlfriend leaving him, he just fights in the war. This book is written in first person point of view. Anthony always focuses on the negative and drinks. Anthony tells you what he thought when certain events took place. There are slang and curse words in this book. This book is for kids that are my age (thirteen) and older.
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Posted March 27, 2007
This book titled 'Jarhead' is an accurate portrait of what a Marine was, is and will be. Being in the marines is very stressful and difficult (the boot camp) and can challenge even the strongest people. Swofford hit the bulls-eye with this hit. I have never read a book that has described my beloved corps in a better manner. This book speaks the truth about what really goes on in A Devildogs head when he is about to engage in battle. I really like the writing style that Swofford gives in this masterpiece. If you have never understood the Marines then I suggest this book. This book displays love, hate, sadness, and fake happiness and I mean how happy could you be in a desert thats about to become a warzone. Overall this book captured me. Anthony Swofford did a great job giving the definition of a marine while in the Marine corps.
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Posted January 27, 2007
My headline says it all.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 11, 2006
The first time I read this book I was a little confussed with other storys about marines lives in the wars in other stories the marine would talk about his experince in shoot outs but then this one he talked more about a kind of a boring life in the Marines and then a frustrating life with his girlfreind and his trouble with getting along with other marines in his platoon. But I enjoyed reading what his experince was like.
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Posted April 21, 2006
a great book that doesnt explore wars as most people see them but as an average marine might see it. i liked the way he admitted to anything and everything, even the things that most people might not be proud of.
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Posted April 6, 2006
What I was struck by was the profanity and the main objective was to sleep with women, get drunk and talk 'the s___' as they referred to? Is that what military life is all about? Is this the reality of the Marines. My Dad served under Patton, fought in the Battle of the Bulge and received 3 purple hearts and never did he ever refer to his service as a pursuit of women, drinking...etc. I know he drank in the war zone to control his nerves, but it was not his objective.
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Posted March 24, 2006
The first time I read this book, I hated it. After seeing the movie and reading it a second time I loved it. The book has few, if you could call them, depictions of combat. Instead it focuses on a point of view rarely presented about war that is the waiting and the boredom. This is the best and probably the most accurate story about the gulf war and what a majority of the soldiers, marines, etc. went through and saw. Only the begging of 'Three Kings' covers this. Technique wise, elements of modernism can be seen throughout the whole the book. While this maybe considered an awful book for its story and lack of action, it is still a very important piece of literature. Read the story several times, see the movie with the author commentary, and then read the book again.
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Posted March 25, 2006
This book confirmed everything I have been told¿. It must be true. I give it five stars. Respectable people like Dan Rather and Bill Maher among other real thinkers of our day have told me that the people that join the military are either too poor or dumb to make it in regular life so they join the army. It is nice to read the account of one who actually served in the Marines and is honest about his poor dumb pitiful life. It confirms everything that the smart people have told me. I am glad that Hollywood made a movie about it because that way I can watch it and that takes less effort than reading. Plus my mommy can bring me popcorn while I watch it. I can relate to Jarheads experience with sand in his sleeping bag because I have salty popcorn in mine. PS. I played army once and advanced from a ninny to a numskull to a bonehead and then a Jarhead... Now my skull is so thin I may have to go into academia and write a book.
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Posted March 23, 2006
Early in the 1st chapter he writes 'what follows is not true, and not false...it's what I know. I'm neither sick nor well' or something to that affect. What I know is this writing is either bitterness mixed with sick fantasy or the ramblings of an ill mind. If taken as such, you will be able to find glimpses of a entertaining read. Otherwise, its a horrific portrait of American service personel.
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Posted February 16, 2006
Mike A. I read the book Jarhead by Anthony Swofford. This book is an autobiography about Swofford and his marine experience in the first Gulf War. In the book Swofford writes about himself as a Marine sniper/scout. In this book he explains in great detail the hard life of a marine over seas. For example he talked about the food, living conditions, and hard, intense work. Also in the book it talks about all things that Marines and other armed forces do when they aren¿t in battle, it also uses the vocabulary of what I thought a Marine would say. Such as all of the swears and southern slang. The main conflict was that all these soldiers were involved in a war in terrible, hot, not-well-treated conditions. I didn¿t think this book was very exciting at all. I thought this because they never really talked about being in battles they only talked about what they do when they aren¿t in battle. I didn¿t feel like I was in the book at all because I¿ve never had any war experience and that is what this book was all about. The main conflict did interest me because it showed the real hardships of war. It was very interesting because it made you think that not only are the soldiers fighting and risking there lives it showed the other horrible things they had to do. For example they get food that is in a bag and very old and nasty also they have horrible living conditions because this war was in a desert and soldiers had nothing to cool them down in the 110 degree weather! I thought the characters were very realistic because one, it is a true story and two, they seemed like they were like a stereotypical soldier. The book¿s ending wasn¿t very satisfying because it didn¿t really tell you anything it just ended with Swofford still in the Marines. It didn¿t have any good sign off or anything special, I thought the author could have put more thought or detail into an ending in a book like this. For example I would have ended it when I had left the Marines. The author uses a 1st person writing style. This writing style seemed appropriate for this style of a book. The author uses very interesting vocabulary. For example he uses all the swears and southern slang that I thought a soldier or Marine would use. He also used a lot of army terms such as gun names and different weapons that I¿ve never heard of. The author used great changing in tones so that you could picture the characters and you knew when there was a different character even before he told you. All in all I thought he used a great writing style but he could¿ve put more into the ending. I would rate this book a 5/10. I would rate this book a 5/10 because it wasn¿t very interesting. The author only focused on himself and his of battle duties. I didn¿t like this because I like books with battles and action in them. I also didn¿t like this book very much because it was very repetitive. It was repetitive in the sense that all he always talked about was himself and his friends swearing, having sex, and cleaning/using their weapons. I thought it was cool in the beginning but then it just got old and boring. I rate it a 5/10 because it isn¿t the worst book I¿ve read but it definitely isn¿t the best I¿ve read. I would only recommend this to people who want to learn about armed forces¿ life other than battle otherwise I don¿t think anyone will like this book. All in all I didn¿t like this book. I thought it was too repetitive and boring. I also thought the author gave a horrible and not-interesting ending. I thought reading this book was a huge waste of time. I think that if you read this book you will be interested for the first 70 pages then you will get bored and start hating it. I didn¿t like this book and I don¿t think anyone will either.
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Posted December 6, 2005
this book told you how a man can slowly become insane just waiting for a war to start and i think it was a great book
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Posted January 17, 2006
Swofford stated in the beginning 'this is what I know'. What I know is that he seems to find nothing but negative aspects of military life. Granted it was and is no walk in the park, but to constantly victimize himself and his platoon mates as some rag tag force with no leadership is ridiculous. He is a very good story teller. I recognized many stories he told as if they happened to him, but are mostly military lore. The novel is inacurate in many aspects and should not be considered a portrait of Marine life.
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Posted November 7, 2005
Been there, done that. It was spot-on. The only people that will be disappointed in this book are the myopic, with fascist tendencies. Jarhead is what happens when you send a teenager to war, and then leave him in a waiting room with sand storms for six months. The people you send to die for your gas prices were your children a year ago. This is one of their stories. Get used to it.
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Posted November 7, 2005
this book is awsome there is so much truth into this book[and shooting]hoorah
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Overview
In his New York Times bestselling chronicle of military life, Anthony Swofford weaves his experiences in war with vivid accounts of boot camp, reflections on the marines, and remembrances of battles with lovers and family.
When the U.S. Marines—or “jarheads”—were sent to Saudi Arabia in 1990 for the Gulf War, Anthony Swofford was there. He lived in sand for six months; he was punished by boredom and fear; he considered suicide, pulled a gun on a fellow marine, and was targeted by both enemy and friendly fire. As engagement with the Iraqis drew near, he was forced to consider what it means to be an American, a soldier, a son of a soldier, and a man.
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