"Three Soldiers"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how in the novel "Three Soldiers", John Dos Passos portrays the search for self-identity within the spiritual dismantling of the man through the lives of three fictional characters in World War I. It looks at how the concept of self-realization is apparent in the novel by the parallel stories of Fuselli and Chrisfield, both destroyed in the end, and also by the recurrent symbol of man being turned into a machine. It also shows how the novel provides a literary journey into the mind of the conflicted young American soldier, showing how each character deals with the decisions they make and are forced to reap.

From the Paper:

"Inevitably of course Fuselli, Andrews and Chrisfield, get spilt up, each finding a unique path to self realization or demise. Chrisfield gets promoted, and Andrews ends up in the hospital. Their paths do not cross again until the Armistice has been signed and the war is over. When Andrews leaves the hospital to report back to his company, he reports to find his old friend Chrisfield, now a Corporal. Andrews gets leave from the army to study at a University in Paris where he briefly runs into Fuselli, who has not advanced in rank and had been working in the labor battalion for the remainder of the war."

More papers on "Three Soldiers":

• Analytical Essay # 85208 : "Writers Who Were Soldiers"
• Analytical Essay # 145744 : "British Soldiers After the War"
• Book Review # 131579 : "Three Day Road" - A Book Review"

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