Jarhead Entry No. 1

Journal Entry 1 – A Marine’s Troubled Life Anthony says this soliloquy that reveals a lot about what will happen later on, “I remember about myself a loneliness and poverty of spirit; mental collapse; brief jovial moments after weeks of exhaustion; discomfiting bodily pain; constant ringing in my ears; sleeplessness and drunkenness and desperation; fits of rage and despondency; mutiny of the self; lovers to whom I lied; lovers who lied to me. I remember going in one end and coming out the other. I remember being told I must remember and then for many years forgetting.” This soliloquy is very significant because it reveals the basic concepts and things that will happen to him in the book. He says this in the very beginning of the book and you can infer what can happen based on what he says in the soliloquy. When he mentions his loneliness and poverty of spirit, he was probably bored out of his mind and had nothing to do during his time. He experiences mental collapse, body pain, and sleep deprivation from the misery of training and war. He probably gets angry later on with another Marine or family friend which explains his fits of rage. Mutiny to self means conflicting with yourself which means he probably had suicidal thoughts. Then he has the lovers that he cheats on and he has the lovers that cheat on him which shows very little faith in one another. Obviously, he will experience troubles and obstacles in front of him constantly as a Marine and he will have to deal with them. That soliloquy tells what his accounts will be about. It is practically almost like a thesis of what he will be writing about. It gives a lot of description of what hardships he’ll experience, but it doesn’t give too much to give away what he actually will go