beyond the reach of all our rope? This metaphor captures the existential inquiry into the depths to which a human soul might descend.

Pavlo’s own memory adds another layer to this exploration. He recalls swimming in the Hudson River as a child, a moment when disorientation led him to fight his way downwards, mistakenly believing he was ascending. These images weave together a tapestry of existential bewilderment—illustrating not only the suffering inherent in human life but also the profound confusion that often obscures our grasp on reality.

The crescendo of turmoil in Pavlo Hummel unfolds in a searing act of retaliation, where Sgt. Wall hurls a grenade, sealing Pavlo's fate in a fiery burst of revenge. This act of vengeance stems from a simmering enmity, ignited when Pavlo had previously beaten and debased him in a brothel amidst the chaos of Vietnam. A mirrored scene emerges at the curtain's fall on the first act, when Kress, fueled by perceived mockery, lashes out at Pavlo. As Pavlo's barrage of profanities bombards Kress, Pierce steps in, admonishing, "You gotta learn to think, Hummel.... You beat him; you had ole Kress beat and then you fixed it so you hadda lose. You went after him so he hadda be able to put you down."

Therefore, while Sgt. Wall's savage backlash in the brothel stands without reason, Pavlo's character unfolds as one who incessantly provokes, inviting the very violence that befalls him. This intricate psychological tapestry weaves through the fabric of Rabe's narrative, ensuring the audience never views Pavlo simply as an innocent prey to brutality. Instead, he is etched as a complex figure, whose actions often tilt the scales toward self-destructive outcomes, challenging any simplistic interpretation of victimhood.

As a young outsider estranged from his kin, Pavlo's quest for companionship and purpose gnaws at him, driving him into the embrace of the U.S. Army. His yearning for acceptance becomes the glue binding him to this institution. Pavlo aspires to embody the archetypal hero, the soldier par excellence, yet he flounders during his training, awkward and unsure. He envisions himself as a formidable warrior, yet remains the outsider, pilfering from his comrades and resorting to attempted suicide, longing for some semblance of recognition.

Despite the army's promise of transformation, its training becomes a hollow journey, failing to nurture Pavlo's sense of self or maturity. It offers no surrogate family to replace the one he's lost. The narrative warns that those who seek an external institution as a rite of passage may ultimately find themselves abandoned by the very entity they hoped would provide fulfillment.

The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, while coming out of David Rabe’s experiences in the Vietnam War, is not only a war play; it is also about growing up male in contemporary America. Pavlo Hummel offers the admiration of the outsider for those soldiers who can be considered “regular army,” the infantry, and for their civilian counterparts as well. As Rabe explains in an author’s note, “He has romanticized the street-kid tough guy and hopes to find himself in that image.” With matinee-idol soldier images in place of a father, he seeks and finds in the army a similar pattern to fulfill.

The play is set in the United States Army of the Vietnam War period. Basic training provides the language which defines reality for Hummel, and the world he encounters must be perceived to fit that language. He must also behave in accordance with the male image it defines. Therefore, he is ashamed of the intelligence and compassion which cause him to be assigned as a medic rather than as an infantry soldier; he suppresses the part of himself that would criticize the sexism, the racism, and the dehumanization of the image offered by the army.

The Vietnam War experience, however, resists being defined by language. When Hummel confronts human suffering and death on such a scale, when he himself suffers three physical wounds, the voice he has suppressed begins to be heard. As he fulfills the image his mother gave him of the film hero little Jimmy (“what a tough little mite he was, and how he leaped upon that grenade, did you see”), his awareness of his own impending death releases Ardell from within him to lead Hummel through his own past training. Repeatedly, Ardell pushes Hummel to see himself as separate from the image he has been trained to fulfill. “In there where you live, you that awful hurtin’ black so you can’t see yourself no way,” Ardell tells him after he reveals his father’s desertion. Furthermore, Ardell points out, the training given is not even appropriate for a modern world. As Pavlo is trained to put on his gas mask, for example, Ardell reminds him that in this war he will probably be hit with radiation, not gas, and that the mask will not protect him.

As long as he is alive Hummel clings to his faith in the male image he has been given, but with his death he tries to rid himself of his training. “You gotta get that stuff outa you, man,” Ardell encourages him. “But . . . I . . . I’m dead!” Hummel realizes, and his coffin is carried away to a military march, revealing the pessimistic conclusion of Rabe’s vision. Once again, Pavlovian training has suppressed the individuality and the innocence implied by Hummel’s last name. Only a lonely outsider such as Pavlo Hummel could reveal so completely the masculine image embodied in contemporary American realities; as Emily Dickinson wrote, “Success is counted sweetest/ By those who ne’er succeed.”