Military experience

[petran]

I was wondering if anybody could help me out with references to work related to the emotional aspects of life in the military and most importantly what happens after one gets discharged... I am interested primarily in literature and not in historical studies or studies produced by mental health professionals regarding the health of military personnel. I have gone over Jarhead and the work of Tim O' Brien (which I thought captures quite well - still- the confusion and sense of displacement experienced in the field), but have been unable to find anything that deals with happens after, as opposed to during, military service - any ideas/help?

[mayneverhave]

I was wondering if anybody could help me out with references to work related to the emotional aspects of life in the military and most importantly what happens after one gets discharged... I am interested primarily in literature and not in historical studies or studies produced by mental health professionals regarding the health of military personnel. I have gone over Jarhead and the work of Tim O' Brien (which I thought captures quite well - still- the confusion and sense of displacement experienced in the field), but have been unable to find anything that deals with happens after, as opposed to during, military service - any ideas/help?

I'm not sure if you're looking for a specific time period - but it sounds like your focus is on 20th century American experiences.

Perhaps take a look at the novels of Hemingway, especially the big 3: The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls. All deal with with emotional aspects of being involved in war, in Hemingway's minimalist style.

The Sun Also Rises, especially, takes place after World War I, during which the narrator and protagonist is left impotent by injury. This novel is also subsequently one of the most important works of the Lost Generation.

[Pryderi Agni]

In poetry, you simply can't do better than Wilfred Owen. His poetry is exhaustively real, and conveys a sense of the prayer that all soldiers pray: to end war. Here's a sample, read if you like:

Arms and the Boy

Let the boy try along this bayonet-blade
How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood;
Blue with all malice, like a madman's flash;
And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh.

Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-heads
Which long to muzzle in the hearts of lads.
Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth,
Sharp with the sharpness of grief and death.

For his teeth seem for laughing round an apple.
There lurk no claws behind his fingers supple;
And God will grow no talons at his heels,
Nor antlers through the thickness of his curls.

[petran]

Thanks for your feedback :-) , but I am more interested in work drawing from the Vietnam war onwards (my mistake not being more specific above).
Needless to say the books you mention are true classics and Owen was a favourite of mine when growing up and coming to grips with the legacies of the ww1...

[bahaa1986]

Thanks for your feedback :-) , but I am more interested in work drawing from the Vietnam war onwards (my mistake not being more specific above).
Needless to say the books you mention are true classics and Owen was a favourite of mine when growing up and coming to grips with the legacies of the ww1...

Well i think you need a war hero , or to give a visit to old warrior organization , i think they organize some social events to these men and their families . you could sign up for any volunteered task inside , might open a back door for you to hear some good unknown stories . And also you might lay your hand on someone with a rare story .

* there is a suggestion i don't know how it will looks like , but i want to tell it any way : there is some countries like Egypt or Palestine the military at it is obligatory - if you can reach out for those people using Google page translator , you will get a new perspective on the military services in particular .

[breeze]

I was wondering if anybody could help me out with references to work related to the emotional aspects of life in the military and most importantly what happens after one gets discharged
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller :p