ipl-logo

Duality In The Film 'Full Metal Jacket'

646 Words3 Pages

The main message of the film, “Full Metal Jacket” I would describe as the term, “duality” which means the state or quality of being two or in two parts. One scene in the film, the Colonel calls out the “born to kill” writing on Joker’s helmet and he responds “the duality of man, sir!” Throughout the movie the Joker’s Character points at duality, his whole character is struggled through his complexed sides of duality. He publicly portrays his the role of “killer.” However, deep down you can see his idealistic views against war and how he’s constantly battling between his two personas. Take a look at his job for instance; he is a reporter for a newspaper in the Marine Corps. Each Marine is trained to be one and each Marine is a rifleman trained to kill. It consistently gets berated into them in boot camp all the time. Then he gets a job as a reporter having nothing to do with killing, but simply observing the chaos of war. “This is my rifle …show more content…

It’s not just a line from the drill instructor; I believe it has a lot of meaning. It’s almost like Joker’s instructions to hide behind his public persona of a warrior, a facade that helps him get through the entirety of the film until after killing the female sniper in vengeance of Cowboys death, his ultimate war face has to be shown. All in vengeance of Cowboy being killed. The death of his best friend finally made him transform into a killer, he wanted to truly kill. But once he gets to the sniper he sees that not only is the sniper critically injured, but to the point they will die, but it’s a female sniper. This is when he has to make the ultimate choice of either killing her to end her suffering or let her die in pain. The term duality of that situation is portrayed quite well. The humane way to do is to end the suffering and what does Joker do? The humane way. Which I believe is the thing, I think, he’s been struggling with internally this entire

Show More
Related

  • Similarities Between Buster Kilrain And Robert E Lee

    167 Words  | 1 Pages

    Albeit General Robert E. Lee wore red and Private Buster Kilrain wore blue, these two men were quite similar in several ways. Each soldier was a leader in a war that they chose to fight in, in order to uphold and defend their respective ideologies. Despite those ideologies being opposite, each felt theirs was superior and in turn was willing to sacrifice his life to protect it and the way of life it afforded. Buster Kilrain and Robert E. Lee were very close in age, Kilrain at the ripe old age of fifty-one and Lee at the slightly riper age of fifty-seven.

    Read More

  • How Does Tim O Brien Present The Overall Attitudes In The Things They Carried

    715 Words  | 3 Pages

    (O’Brien pg. 172). O’Brien needs to put a face with the experience, the exaggerations and stories in which he can make one, help him to get over the overall experience. American Sniper on

    Read More

  • Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao And How The Street Gangs Took Central America

    881 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many of the soldiers were cruel, not only killing unarmed people, but also raping "hundreds of women, young girls, widows" (Menchu 166). These murders discouraged some people from protesting, but it made other people realize that they had to be willing to sacrifice their lives to bring about change However, it is revealed the soldiers, who were painted as monsters, may also be victims of state terror. One broke down, claiming that he had to take "orders from a captain" or else he would be killed. If he obeyed, he would be "an enemy of the people" and if he didn't, he would be "the army's enemy," conveying how some soldiers had no choice and were as scared as everyone else (Menchu

    Read More

  • The Green Berets Movie Analysis

    1589 Words  | 7 Pages

    This was an important scene for private Joker because it gave him a reason to hold on to his humanitarian side while fighting a war he did not

    Read More

  • A Summary Of Philip Caputo's A Rumor Of War

    1500 Words  | 6 Pages

    A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo shows the hard work and difficult tasks the men had to go through to prove themselves and protect their country. The war will change the men’s attitudes and the way they do everything. Men made sacrifices in the Vietnam War most people would never make in a lifetime, they will not just sacrifice but push themselves physically harder than most any other men. The men will also emotionally change from constantly watching other men die, or killing other men. The mens first kill was always the hardest for them, mentally they had so many thoughts of the other mans close ones back home and what they would go through and how it would be all their fault.

    Read More

  • Mortality And Death In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

    702 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Doesn't matter what the press says doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the country decides something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe no, matter the odds or consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world. No you move.”

    Read More

  • Spin By Tim O Brien Rhetorical Analysis

    791 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the author retells the chilling, and oftentimes gruesome, experiences of the Vietnam war. He utilizes many anecdotes and other rhetorical devices in his stories to paint the image of what war is really like to people who have never experienced it. In the short stories “Spin,” “The Man I Killed,” and “ ,” O’Brien gives reader the perfect understanding of the Vietnam by placing them directly into the war itself. In “Spin,” O’Brien expresses the general theme of war being boring and unpredictable, as well as the soldiers being young and unpredictable.

    Read More

  • Summary Of On Killing By Dave Grossman

    1239 Words  | 5 Pages

    Introduction The book “On Killing” by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman discusses the taboo topic of killing and how humans are affected by it. The author does this with the help of testimonials coming from veterans who served in wars such as World War I, World War II, and Vietnam. The book looks at the act of killing and discusses some of the psychological methods that have been introduced to make soldiers effective killers as well as some psychological effects soldiers face in battle and when they return home. The purpose of this book is “to not only uncover the dynamics of killing, but to help pierce the taboo of killing that prevented the men in his book and many millions like them from sharing their pain” (pg.XXXV).

    Read More

  • Coping Mechanisms In The Things They Carried And Tim O Brien

    1435 Words  | 6 Pages

    Combat is one of those incidents, where the best and the worst of people will be shown. The effects from combat could last minutes to a lifetime and will define people for the rest of their lives. To overcome the effects, people must have coping mechanisms. In the book, The Things They Carried, a platoon of soldiers is followed in their quest to survive the Vietnam War. The soldiers developed coping mechanisms to deal with stress so they can function normally and survive the war.

    Read More

  • On The Rainy River Diction

    713 Words  | 3 Pages

    He feels the guilt and pressures of everybody around him. He feels as though if he does not to go war, he would be seen as not “masculine” or heroic. This helps his emotions stand out and be known

    Read More

  • Mental Illness In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    1091 Words  | 5 Pages

    The pressure to perform well by others hurt him more than it helped him. The suicide rate of veterans is 50% higher than people who havent served in the military. People lose self-worth, sending them into depression, which causes suicide. This is another one of the mental illnesses that come with fighting in a

    Read More

  • How Does Tim O Brien Use Story Telling In The Things They Carried

    1094 Words  | 5 Pages

    Using this character he shows in fiction what he does in his real life, which is to write stories for people to understand. In an interview with Jeffrey Brown from PBS Newshour, O’Brien explains how fiction can tell the truth: For me, the way to approach a subject such as Vietnam is through storytelling. It’s one thing to watch a newscast or read a newspaper or a magazine article, where things are fairly abstract. In fact, the word war itself has a kind of glazing abstraction to it that conjures up bombs and bullets and so on, whereas my goal is to try to, so much as I can, capture the heart and the stomach and the back of the throat of readers who can lie in bed at night and participate in a story.

    Read More

  • New Historicism In Slaughterhouse-Five

    1106 Words  | 5 Pages

    Soldiers were not viewed as brave men risking their lives, and the war was seen as an unnecessary event. This type of mentality is seen in the novel with the perceptions of the soldiers. The narrator expresses the view of the time period when he states, “They were soldiers’ coats. Billy was the only one who had a coat from a dead civilian” (82). The meaning behind this is very crucial because it establishes a definite division between soldiers and civilians.

    Read More

  • Theme Of War In Liam O 'Faherty's The Sniper'

    1116 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the short story The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty, a main theme is that war is cruel. This is supported by many details within the story. War makes people do things that they normally wouldn’t do, mostly because it is their duty to protect what they believe in or their country. For example, the

    Read More

  • Action Without Thought In 'The Sniper'

    624 Words  | 3 Pages

    Liam O’Flaherty’s realistic fiction story, “The Sniper” takes place in Dublin, Ireland. The main character is a sniper fighting a civil war. He is on the Republican side who is fighting against the Free Staters. He does not put a lot of thought into his actions and it ends up costing him something big in the end. By using irony and description O’Flaherty shows that action without thought can lead to serious repercussions.

    Read More

More about Duality In The Film 'Full Metal Jacket'

Open Document