Jarhead-(post 3)

"The next morning, Troy's mother showed up at Lisa's parents' house. I was half-asleep, but I heard her yelling at Doc John about the great disrespect we'd done her dead son, that our drunken and violent behavior had permanently tarnished his death. And I felt sorry for his mother, because although I understood that from her perspective we'd certainly disgraced Troy's memory, I knew that if Troy had had any choice in the matter, he'd have wanted us spending the evening of his funeral drunk and at combat" (113).


This quote is from the part of the story when Anthony Swofford’s friend and fellow marine was killed in a car accident after returning from duty. They went to his funeral then that night, went to a bar and got drunk. Locals made fun of the jarheads, so Swofford and other fellow marines beat the crap out of all of the locals. Yea, Troy’s mother has a right to be mad, but Swofford is also right when he says that Troy would have wanted that. The locals disrespected the marines and Troy’s memory. What I don’t understand is why anybody would make fun of someone that had been killed. Especially someone in their own community who had fought in Iraq. I don’t know if this bad or not, but by just destroying the locals in a fight, it made the marines look even tougher than they already are. It made me think, ‘dang, these guys are badasses.’ It gave me a good feeling that they stood up for what they believed in, instead of just taking the insults. Troy’s mother has to see it that way. Troy would have done the same thing if he was still alive. This was a sad, but exciting moment of the book.