Chapter XI marks a distinct shift in the novel. Suddenly, without warning, we find ourselves in the trenches. This is the first actual description of the war that we’ve seen in the novel, and it takes place over halfway through it. I find this to be a really interesting choice that Daly is making, and I have a few questions about it. Why does Daly choose to begin his descriptions of combat so abruptly–do you feel like he’s making a greater commentary about war itself, or is it simply a narrative tactic? How is the war functioning differently in this novel than in the previous novels we’ve read? What insights about the war do we gain by spending so much of the novel physically separate from it?
Daly’s novel is described as having two major conflicts: the tangible, corporeal combat of the war, and the mental/emotional combat of racism. By the end of the novel, do you feel like these two conflicts are equal in their magnitude, or does one feel more significant? Are the scars of one more painful than the other? What seems more impactful to Montie?
When Casper is injured and Montie begins to help him, he states that “war isn’t the only hell that [he’s] been through lately” (69). How do you read this? What is the “other hell” that Casper is referencing?
The last few lines of the novel were some of the most impactful to me. In the final scene, we are presented with Casper and Montie, “two bodies slumped as one,” entangled and side by side in their death. How do you read this? What are the implications of this ending, and what do they tell us about the relationship between war and race? Does race really matter in no-man’s land?
4. The lines “two bodies slumped as one” read to me as a condemnation of both wars the book addresses. It demonstrates how ridiculous it is that humans do not treat everyone equally because it represents that Casper was in no way better than Montie as in many ways they are two sides of the same coin. By presenting the idea that in the end they are one, he condemns the idea that people need to be separated in life. It is also a commentary on the destruction war brings. It is powerful enough to kill all kinds of people who all have millions of other things going on internally and externally. “The War to End All Wars” takes on a new meaning because the Great War is powerful enough to bring race conflict to an end on an extremely small scale. On the one hand, race does not matter in no-mans land because all races are impacted and killed without discretion. However, I think for those truly impacted by the race war in this time even war could not completely erase their experiences and therefore their race still matters.
1-The shift from the home front to combat was very abrupt but I felt Daly did this to illustrate that Montie would experience two separate worlds in his short life. The first half of the novel is the pain of racism at home and the second is the pain of racism on the battlefield. This splitting of the settings seems to really drive home the point that no matter where Montie is, he will always be treated as an inferior.
2-The two conflicts – racism and the foreign battlefields are both brutal realities for Montie but it seems that the court martial incident, which was rooted in Bob Casper’s horrible racist views, is the tipping point (60). I felt that the pain of losing his sergeant’s stripes was a greater injury to Montie’s soul than the fear of being killed in the war. Montie wanted to show his patriotism and be an officer and when that dream was crushed, it was much more impactful than the combat experience.
3-The statement by Casper about “hell” was surprising and very interesting. It was a quick “turn about” in the book that I never expected. I feel like Daly purposely does not clarify it but I interpret it as the GUILT and SHAME that Casper feels about his racism. I think he regrets taking action against Montie and he is also questioning his relationship with Miriam. The unanswered letter indicated to me that Casper was extremely conflicted about their relationship (59). The “hell” is the fact Casper is questioning those deeply ingrained racist beliefs that were described in pages 6-8.
4-I first notice the intermingling of Black and White men “huddled together” while under fire on page 43 and I think that was a foreshadowing of how the novel ends. The implications of these men clinging to each other on the battlefield means that death does not discriminate. It is the great equalizer in race relations.
1. I think Daly uses this abrupt shift as a narrative tactic in order to replicate what the soldiers probably felt. The soldiers felt they were ready for action and were bored with training camp, but when they actually got to the front they realized that is nothing like anything they were trained for. They were probably taken aback just like the reader is due to the abrupt shift which is the narrative tactic I mentioned before. The war is functioning differently in this novel mainly due to its secondary focus of how racism occurred during the war. No matter where Monty is he cannot escape racism even in a place where no systemic societal issues have no place.
4. When I read the end I read it in the same lense as a common theme we have discussed: war/death prevails over everything. Despite racism being the major focus of the novel, I think the end demonstrates how nothing really matters in wartime or should matter except for death. Death will prevail.
The ending of the novel also hit me hard. I definitely think their death, slumped together, shows the illusion of separation and categories. Everyone is condemned to die. The color of your skin plays no part in that equation. No one is truly superior over the other since we end up in the same place. I initially found their deaths bleak and I think, for the time the story was published, it was. We are able to look at this symbolism with the privilege of living after the Civil Right Movement. We know that this recognition of the illusion of separation can be realized. The time the book was published must have just held the message as a distant dream that Daly hoped one day most people would see. Race does not matter in no-man’s land. Death claims indiscriminately.
3) I feel like there is no real way for us to be able to know the other hell that Casper is refereeing to. In all honesty when I read through this the first time, I had kind of thought it was just him once again, trying to turn the main focus of the situation to himself. I read it as some insignificant problem he must be dealing with, that in his final moments he has to remind Montie that his struggles are still greater than his.