"GOODBYE, DARKNESS" (WILLIAM MANCHESTER).   Term Paper ID:20507 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Critical review of author's experiences as Marine in Pacific in WWII.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Critical review of author's experiences as Marine in Pacific in WWII. Paper Introduction: In Goodbye Darkness, William Manchester writes a memoir of his experiences in the Pacific in World War II. Manchester is a well-known historian and biographer who has written a number of popular books on these subjects. This book is more personal than most of his writings in that it describes his own experiences and provides a unique perspective on World War II and war in general. This book is not a nostalgic look back at an earlier time in the author's life, however, and Manchester evokes both the banal and the horrific sides of war equally in his narrative. In terms of memory, Manchester is recalling incidents that he sees as having been decisive in his life, moments that changed him from a boy to a man and that left him with a very different perspective on life and the world. Manchester returns to the Pacific to look back on his life. He does this at a time when he Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Those men on the line were my family, my home. He remembers the firstman he killed in the war, and he also remembers the truth about what sortof an experience killing someone really was. Any man in combat who lacks comrades who will die for him, or for whom he is willing to die, is not a man at all. Interestingly, for all the sense of loyaltythat Manchester feels for the men in his battalion, he has lost any sinceof the esprit de corps of the Marines. War is a very different matter on the battlefield from what it is tothose fighting it from home, and it is also a very different thing to thosewho were actually there as opposed to those who remember it only ashistory. Instead,we had a Cold War and many smaller wars, some more gut-wrenching than WorldWar II if not more costly in lives (Vietnam). He has not only remembered the events of the war but has spentmuch of his life trying to put them into a context. In terms of memory, Manchester is recalling incidents that he sees ashaving been decisive in his life, moments that changed him from a boy to aman and that left him with a very different perspective on life and theworld. When he kills the othersoldier, he vomits and soils himself: "I knew I had become a thing oftears and twitchings and dirtied pants. Work CitedManchester, William. It is not merely amemory--it is an analysis of the thought processes this one man has had togo through to find the reasons for his own behavior as well as the behaviorof those around him. Indeed, much of this book is concerned with Manchesterreturning, first returning to the battlefield (an act that puzzled himuntil he delved into the meaning of war and the reasons why he would behavein that way) and now returning to the site of the battles to see what hashappened to those areas since. Not only would I go back to my islands; I would visit all the major battlefields to discover, if possible, what we had done there and why we had done it; mine, I suppose, was the last generation to believe audacity in combat is a virtue. Thenature of the experience is indicated in the first few pages as Manchesteris flying back to the Pacific so many years later. One motive was a yen to see the sights of the South Seas I had missed before . This book is not a nostalgic look back at anearlier time in the author's life, however, and Manchester evokes both thebanal and the horrific sides of war equally in his narrative. The conditions of this war were onerous for all involved, of adifferent order in Europe than in the Pacific, but in both instancesdifficult for the men who had to fight. Life in combat is the subject of this book and is the strong memorythat has brought Manchester back to the location of his own combat career.The lesson Manchester learns from his war career is that the reasons whymen fight are not the reasons usually given by those who discuss war. Manchester makes these images vivid as he does the dilemmafacing him then and now. Manchester is a well-knownhistorian and biographer who has written a number of popular books on thesesubjects. In addition, he isvery interested in what has happened to the regions where the battles tookplace in the years since the end of the war, and he is usually disappointedat what he finds. This is one of the key elements in the book, the explanation asManchester comes to understand the true nature of war and the real meaningit holds for those who have to fight it as opposed to the policymakers whomay have caused it and who certainly are now involved in directing it fromafar. Manchester describes the militaryconditions he faced and that others in the Pacific faced, making hisdecision to return from a hospital bed to fight all the more wondrous tohim and all the more in need of explanation. I remember wondering dumbly: Isthis what they mean by 'conspicuous gallantry'?" (7). . An understandingof this love is the essential meaning of this book, and it is a themeManchester returns to again and again as he examines specific acts of loveon the battlefield with men supporting one another, fighting for oneanother, and dying for one another, and as he considers the overall meaningof this love. Of course, Manchester is a more aware observer of the scene and abetter source for memories because of his training as a writer andhistorian. rather than let them die and me live with the knowledge that I might have saved them. It came only twenty years after the war-to-end-all-wars, andmany had thought that was the worst the human being would ever again haveto face in terms of war. Boston: Little, Brown, 198 .----------------------- 1 And I don't know why we believed it (11).By the end of the book, Manchester may not know why they believed it, buthe does understand better what they did on the battlefield and why they didit. Manchester returns to the Pacific to look back on his life. In Goodbye Darkness, William Manchester writes a memoir of hisexperiences in the Pacific in World War II. Manchester describes World War II as more devastating than any otherin history. Indeed, this is all the morepuzzling to him given his own awareness of the possibility of his death,something he felt the other men on his ship did not realize: Most fighting men cannot imagine their own deaths. He looks back from a perspective in a world thathas not fulfilled the promise many thought it would fulfill when theyfought this war and planned for a future without any further war. . In presenting this material, Manchester also portrays moments in thewar with great vividness, beginning with the first man he killed andextending through other stark images of his war experience--a young soldieris killed while roaming around behind the lines looking for souvenirs forhis family; the author's one-on-one battle with a Japanese sniper; thesergeant who panics in combat. The war that is presented in these pagesderives from Manchester's memories as rekindled by his trip to the Pacificregion in the 197 s. He is truly damned (391). . . This book is theculmination of thirty years of thought on the matter. These images are interwoven with thereflections of the author on the meaning of war and the meaning of his warin particular. But the chief reason for going was to try to find what I had lost out there and retrieve it. Manchester refers to this belief on the part ofF.Scott Fitzgerald and to the fact that Fitzgerald did not live to see hisbelief foiled by the reality of World War II (391). He had alwaysbeen ambivalent about the Marines, though not about the men themselves, andhe came to see finally the true value of the men and the falseness of theimage of the Marines at the same time. They fight because they become infused with a sense of lovethat binds them to all the other men on the battlefield. This book is more personal than most of his writings in that itdescribes his own experiences and provides a unique perspective on WorldWar II and war in general. Theydo not fight for a cause or for democracy or for the flag or the peopleback home. The war had its purposes and its consequences. World War II was a great historic event, and today wethink of it in those terms, as something far distant from ourselves.Today, there are those who question much about the war, including a groupwho even challenge the reality of the Holocaust. I wasn't; I had no premonition, but I knew the odds and was uncomforted by them (157). From Manchester'sperspective in the late 197 s, many of those purposes seem to have beenlost in the development of the world since that time. The swagger and bravado of theMarines was once important to him, but he lost that while lying in ahospital bed. I had to be with them. All those I knew on that ship were confident that they would see America again. Hedoes this at a time when he is facing his own feelings of uncertainty aboutAmerican society in a time of increasing crime, political challenge,poverty, and other problems. They were closer to me than I can say, closer than any friends had been or ever would be. Manchester is also fascinated by the meaning of the war in its socialand political sense as he looks back after more than thirty years ofhistory. Manchester makes clear his purpose at the beginning of his book: I had to revisit the Pacific. He saw through the falseness of this portrait and the senseof honor and rightness it gave to the corps and its battles. Manchester writes of the time he disobeyed a doctor's ordersand left his hospital bed in order to return to the battle: It was an act of love. Manchester was woundedseveral times in the course of the wear but always returned to thebattlefield, drawn by that love which infused the others on the line aswell. Manchester's warexperiences were in a different theater, but his war is something heexperienced and others only heard about, a fact that becomes itselfambiguous for Manchester as he finds his own memories changed by time. Manchester sees not thepolitical reasons for war but the human rationale on the battlefield fornot turning and running from the lunacy all around. They had never let me down, and I couldn't do it to them. Goodbye, Darkness. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.