The Naked and the Dead (Identities and Issues in Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Norman Mailer
- First Published: 1948
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: Class conflict, Leadership, World War II, Soldiers, Pacific Ocean
- Locales: Islands, South Pacific, Anopopei (fictive)
The Work
The Naked and the Dead centers on a platoon of soldiers on the Asian island of Anopopei sent on a mission behind enemy lines. As the platoon advances, the novel flashes back to the soldiers’ lives at home, showing how their identities have been shaped by their ethnic, racial, and regional cultures.
There is, for example, Wilson, an easygoing Texan, who favors strong drink and women. Joey Goldstein is self-consciously Jewish but good with his hands. Roth, another Jew, dislikes dwelling on his Jewishness and is bitter about his inability to get a job...
[The entire page is 729 words long]
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