World War II in Literature

Paper Summary:

This papers focuses on the front-line battlefield experiences of both American and Japanese soldiers as depicted in the semi-biographical, but fictional work, "The Naked and the Dead" by Norman Mailer, and the autobiographical account of World War II experiences by Ooka Shohei, "Fires on the Plain". It looks at how both of these great books are war-account classics that provide insights from a unique perspective that actually delivers the reader onto the front lines and into the hell of war on the hot Pacific islands.

From the Paper:

""The Naked and the Dead" by Norman Mailer is a novel about human tragedy. The book was set during World War II on one of the many islands American armed forces had to battle for against the Royal Japanese soldiers. The story depicts the island, Anopopei, as an insignificant one in the scope of the pacific theatre but that does not cut down on the book's characters having to deal with isolation, death, loss and the loneliness. All of the characters in this work do their fair share of suffering as the war goes on all around them. Victory only shows that many of their comrades in arms are never going home and those who are lucky to go home have been scarred either mentally or physically and will never be the same."

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