With The Old Breed Analysis

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With the arrival of Eugene Sledge’s first day of action, Marines storm the shores of Peleliu, withering intense fire from the Japanese defenders. Eugene survives the baptism by blood that are the beaches. And as his company advances further inland, the Marines yet again come under Japanese bombardment. When the barrage lifts, Eugene encounters a hurt friend. After Eugene asks about his condition, the friend boasts that the injury is a “million-dollar wound” that will effectively end the battle for him. The two then head their separate ways, and Eugene finds the corpses of two Japanese riflemen and a Japanese medical corpsman. The medic had been killed while treating the two soldiers. Only a short distance away, an American medic crouches over a young Marine, grieving over his inability to save the boy. As Eugene observes the scene, he is surrounded by men waiting for treatment and in the grips of morphine. In the end, Eugene has to leave and continue the war. …show more content…
Various forms of media have explored this process, commonly portraying it as the transformation of boys to men. However, Eugene offers a more cynical view that is rooted in the reality of his experiences. In With the Old Breed, Eugene portrays the men, both Japanese and American, as subhuman rather than hardened. The brutal and purposeless events of the battles strip away the humanity of those forced to fight. The soldiers’ corruption is seen in various elements of the story. For instance, the importance of medical care in the aforementioned scene stood out to me. Sledge reveals the deceptive and wasteful nature of