Argumentative Paper Example on Helmet for My Pillow

The author of Helmet for my pillow paints a grim picture of being a soldier and taking part in the war; the beauty of this story is that it is not a tale or fiction but a real life experience; a biography. The audiences to this story can make an affirmation to the argument that there is nothing glorious about getting into the military right from the training, the wars that one is expected to fight, and the all so obvious fact that all soldiers are expendable. This paper is going to give insights that would back up the above-mentioned argument with respect to the book Helmet for My Pillow. Quotes from the book that resonate with this argument will also be noted down.

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There are several reasons why the author of this book goes out of his way to make the negative claims he made regarding the hardships he faced as being a marine in the United States Army. First on the list is the fact that one loses his identity upon joining the military. The author says the mystery of the world had at some point been part and parcel of these lolling lumps that is, dead soldier, had accorded each and every one of them an identity, a way of walking, a way of talking, and perhaps a social habit of addressing people or a way with speech or a knack of putting color on canvas but all this is gone. What this part of the story is looking to realize is to tell of how a career in the army is very demanding; in the end demanding the very life of those who choose to embrace it.

Robert Leckie also makes a point of noting down the second demerit of choosing to be a soldier who usually culminates into fighting in several wars is how one loses the sense of time. He describes his career as one that predisposed him to a darkness without time; an impenetrable darkness. Perhaps the reason why the author says this is because he was homesick; a characteristic of all that were in his team. This darkness is also a representation of the loneliness he felt, loneliness so deep that it made him start being demented. At one point Robert mentions to the right and left of me rose those terrible formless things that clouded my imagination, which I could not see because there was no light. I was unable to see, but I did not dare close my eyes lest the darkness crawl beneath my eyelids and suffocate me (Leckie, 2010)

Expendability comes in as the third and one of the most notable disadvantages of joining the Marines/military that the author of this biography experienced. According to Robert Locke, all armies are characterized by expendable items. That may be a unit or a part, the destruction of which will not be felt so much by the entirety of the force of the destruction of which will not appear as fatal to the whole. In quite a number of ordeals, a soldier may have put into consideration his finger as expendable or his hand to be expendable but not his torso. It saddens the author and it also meant to sadden the audience that there is a presence of things or individuals that are deemed expendable and such are never remembered in the event of loss or destruction; in fact, their owner never needs to make a replacement of them. In the military a gun is so expendable and so is a catridge that is filled with bullets; sadly the situation is the same with men. By expandability, the author means to say that he felt that his efforts were not appreciated enough; he felt that he loved a country that did not love him back enough. At some point in the book, the author criticizes his bosses and calls them fat by saying only rear echelons with a lot of fat on them can afford such rich diseases like an epicure with his gout (Leckie, 2015). This is evidence that at some point military men resent their immediate bosses.

This is a good story, but on a personal level I would not recommend it to anyone that is looking to join the military because it would be the perfect discouragement. In fact the plant would plant a seed of negative attitude in the minds of all aspirants to a military career line. All the same, on a much positive note the author can be commended for defining military life as it is and not sugarcoating what the entirety of the experience is for soldiers. In conclusion, it can be said that the author is successful in affirming his thesis statement all through his book that is there is nothing glorious about being in the military. This he does with meaningful premises and examples.

References

Leckie, R. (2010). Helmet for my Pillow. Random House.

Leckie, R. (2015). Helmet For My Pillow [Illustrated Edition]. Pickle Partners Publishing.