A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo

War in Literature

In every work of literature I have studied this semester, there was a theme of warfare. What made each memoir, documentary, poem and other varieties of genre unique, however, was the perspective it took place in. A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo, for example, is Caputo’s particular memories of war. It is a recollection of his encounters and close calls which make his writing unique to every other work of literature about the Vietnam War. In the book You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon, the first story, which shares the title of the book, is about a woman named Meg Bradley. She writes about the hardships of being a stay at home wife, waiting for her husband to come home from war. In the poem “Here Bullet” by Brian Turner, Brian is fired at on the front lines, which makes his experience and story unique. The footage that I have watched this semester supports the theme of war as well. For instance, Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq, directed by Jon Alpert and Ellen Goosenberg Kent, is a documentary that consists of a group of wounded soldiers and their recollections of the day when they had their injuries, or to interpret the title, it was the day where they were reminded that they were alive. These memories are followed up by an interview of how their injuries affect their lives in the present day. This film showcases the perspective of warfare by those who have fallen in war and lived to tell. All of these literary works are heavily based upon warfare, yet each one of them has a completely different story to tell, leaving a different impact on the reader. This is because in this class we have gone over war from all perspectives, so that we can gain a better and more educated idea of ...

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... on the front lines, or a soldier taken off the front lines from injury give us an inside perspective of what war is really like as opposed to what young students read in American history textbooks. According to these works of literature, war affects everyone. Whether one’s role involves killing the enemy, or simply living with the ghost of one’s husband, war changes people tremensdously.

Works Cited

Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq. Dir. Jon Alpert and Ellen Goosenberg Kent. Perf. Sgt. Bryan Anderson. Attaboy Films, 2007. DVD.

Caputo, Philip. A Rumor of War. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977. Print.

Fallon, Siobhan. "You Know When the Men Are Gone." You Know When the Men Are Gone. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2011. N. pag. Print.

Turner, Brian. "Here Bullet." Here, Bullet. Farmington, Me.: Alice James, 2005. N. pag. Print.