War Stories

“On the screen, the soldier took shot after shot. Three more bullets ripped into him, knocking him down to one knee. He fought on, bellowing in anger, triumph, and pain. Trevor bellowed right along with him, wrestling with the controller as if it would help destroy the enemy.”

This quote describes the reader’s first glimpse of Trevor. Not surprisingly, he is playing a World War II video game that shows a single soldier behaving heroically. Media has provided Trevor’s main insights into the world of warfare, yet video games like this one aim to glamorize the lone warrior fighting the good fight. The rest of the novel will contradict The Glamorization of Warfare.

“Was it natural for a twelve-year-old kid to be so totally engrossed in something that glorified death and destruction?”

At this early stage, Daniel’s misgivings about his son’s obsession with video games are evident. Surprisingly, Daniel has not been as affected by Jacob’s stories as his son is. He never showed the same inclination to glamorize war or felt the attraction to become a soldier himself; instead, he became a student of history.

“That was another thing about war, besides the noise, pain, death, destruction—it smelled bad too.”

This moment provides the reader’s first glimpse of The Realities of Combat, as seen through Jacob’s eyes before the battle of Sainte-Régine. Young Jacob has been in combat for more than a year and has lost his initial starry-eyed perception about what engaging the enemy might be like. In many future passages, Jacob will also focus on the unpleasant tactile sensations of being a soldier. These can’t be conveyed in a video game.