Individualism and Collective Behavior in Styron's Work - Research Paper Example

Research Paper, Psychology 2 October How Is Individualist and Collective Behavior in Styron’s Work Different When Confronted with the Others (Bierce and Hemingway), Comparing to When He Is Alone? Introduction The article “Rat Beach: Marines on Saipan Waiting to Be Deployed” written by Styron is a modern expression of human psychological thoughts composed of both individualist and collectivist behaviors. He demonstrates this in multiple parts of the deep thoughts of a soldier in war through his wishful thinking and imagination. By studying the behavior of the soldier in Saipan, you come to realize that he expresses more of the collectivist behavior in actions as a culture that is expected of the platoon, yet the inner thinking portrays the individualistic nature. Individualism implies that behavior is highly focused on self-interests ranging from decisions, actions and thoughts, hence prioritizing the selfish ambition (Raiit and Zeedyk 54–55). Collectivism, on the other hand, prioritizes social institutions, letting go of self-interests to give way to the common good. In collectivism, the behaviors and interests tend to be based on the predominant group (the platoon instead of the individual soldier) so that cooperation does occur (Peetz 1). Styron uses descriptive writing to ascertain the psychological nature and behavior of the soldiers. The themes of fear and war come out clearly through his development of words to explain the actions, thoughts, feelings, and reactions of the main character and other soldiers. However, Styron’s, Hemingway’s, and Bierce’s works demonstrate certain common and different characteristics of individualist and collectivist behavior in their plot of stories through their characters. The paper reviews the actions, thoughts, and behaviors of the soldiers in Styron’s article and compares them with those of soldiers in Hemingway’s and Bierce’s stories to establish their divergence in relation to individualist and collectivist behavior. It also delves into the attitudes, attributes, and even coordination of the soldiers in the stories to establish their points of individualist and collectivist behavior. Individualistic Behaviors Personal Regret and Relief Based on the Way of Thinking The previous war in Iwo Jima and Okinawa seems to stir up the soldier’s emotions as the narrator indicates. At first, the soldier is presented as a young man in the military training, who happened to escape death in the Pacific War for the mere reason that he was never deployed because of his young age. Unfortunately, the group that proceeded in the island battlefields had recorded the highest casualty rate; most had died and many suffered injuries as second lieutenants, demanding urgent replacements in the course of the war. Styron wrote that, “had I been older by only a year or so, I would have been immersed in Iwo Jima’s bloodbath; a mere six months and I would have been one of Sledge’s Okinawa martyrs......I escaped this horror by a hair” (“Rat Beach,” par. 2). At this point, the soldier is expressing a great personal relief that he was not among the dead or injured. However, having been deployed after the group, he understood he was now in the battlefield and anticipating a lot, he felt glad his life was spared. Had he been of age, he would perhaps have served as a replacement of the wounded or fallen lieutenants. Styron gives us an in-depth description of the incidents and reactions in the battlefield. He paints a clear picture of the happenings in the reader’s mind. Through his delivery, the reader understands the severity of the war, the threat the soldiers faced and the understanding allows the reader to concur with the character of the soldier Saipan. The war must have been dreadful and the new soldiers had not yet experienced anything. The second lieutenant soldier seemed to be torn between relief and regret, especially where the theme of fear is expounded. He has sufficient time to reflect on what had occurred in Iwo Jima and Okinawa in his absence, and then anticipate what awaited him back in the camp (Styron, “Rat Beach”). Here you perceive a soldier in conscious thought, seeming to compare the two incidences in the imaginary world. If he had been in the previous war, he would have witnessed the bloodbath; however all he knew was what he heard. According to Styron he “lamented not having seen action, there was another, more sensible part of myself that felt immense relief at this reprieve” (“Rat Beach,” par. 2). He regretted having missed the battle, but his way of thought was clearly individualist based on the purpose of witnessing, rather than providing active contributions to the troop. Compared to Bierce’s short story of the “Horseman in the Sky,” the soldier in the case has no regret of ever leaving home. Apparently, his mother had been ill and had little time left to live, meaning the soldier had the alternative to stay, but chose to join the team in the north against the southerner’s war. For Styron, given a choice, he would not hesitate to take it to escape the imminent threat of his life in the invasion. Druce has the courage to leave home and even while on duty, has no remorse over what he left behind (home and family). Though quite sleepy, the memories of his home and parents never seem to disturb him. When the enemy comes on a horse, he perfectly holds the guns and even after realizing it was his father, still fires the rifle to kill his own flesh. According to Bierce, when Druce fired, “duty had conquered; the spirit had said to the body: Peace, be still” (3). He betrays his own blood and relationship for the benefit of his battalion. Individual Opinions The presence of individualism in Rat beach expressed through the battalion senior officers, demonstrates the disconnection of the thoughts and opinions among the high ranking officers. Styron offers contrasting opinions and thoughts among officers (Collonel Timothy Halloran, Admiral Crew and the soldier) during the speech delivery. For officers Halloran and Crew, they had diverging opinions on the course of war, where at the end, you find Halloran advising the platoon to heed to his words. Both officers have competing ideas and are depicted to be in a constant exchange of words to support their claims. While Crew talked of supportive action to the marines, pre-invasion plan and lessening the marines work, Halloran on the other end, suggested to the officers never to believe the officer Crew, addressing him as a betrayer, and one who tends to give the officers his side of reality. He would “playfully challenge the system”, and had the courage to bait a high ranking official (Styron, “Rat Beach”). Styron shows colonel Halloran giving much credit to his own opinion over the presiding officers. The lieutenant hopes for good news and this is expressed in contrasting thoughts from the rest of his friends (Veneris and Stiles). Pretentious Bold Act From the beginning, Styron introduces to the reader a lieutenant soldier who can well be described as bravado. The soldier and his friends (Veneris and Stiles) are leaders of the platoons, but the thoughts, judgments and reactions of the soldier in different instances exposes his inability to contain his hopelessness. The soldier is consumed by fear and while others can dare confront it, he opts to preserve his remarks and hide his sickening behaviors in front of his group and colleagues. Before the officers meeting, Stiles and Veneris spoke up about aggressively hoping the invasion day had reached; however, the soldier’s thoughts and prayers was for the day to never come and he cowardly fails to make a brave comment like the rest (Styron, “Rat Beach”). In most cases, he expresses that he is nervous of his role, but develops ways to conceal it. He had to put up with the team’s spirit and engage in varying activities, yet used the pocket book to fight his nervous behavior. Styron is keen to mention that it would have exposed his weakness, had his troop caught him reading it. Contrary to Styron’s Bravado soldier, Bierce portrayed Druce (soldier) as the non-regretive soldier. According to Bierce, he had “one morning risen from the breakfast table, then quietly but gravely” informed his father, of joining a Union regiment that had arrived at Grafton (2). He had given priority to his self-ambition and exercised non pretentious brave character right from home and into the battlefield. Styron exposed the personal timidity of the soldier through the theme of fear, but Bierce’s choice of words (like courageous man, hardy soldier) expressed the resilient and determined person he was. Inadequacy Judgment The lieutenant in Saipan is identified several times engaging in deep and conscious thoughts, comparing and judging his capability with that of his friends. He is concerned with his own welfare, ability to lead his platoon, physical strength, courage to face the battle and whether he would survive the tragedy when it ever occurred. The invasion day was a persistent torment for the soldier and he begins to question his ability as a soldier. He expresses his hopeless state while in an internal conflict with himself. His inner feelings are driven with envy which forces him to compare himself with Stiles and Veneris. Styron mentioned that besides the two acting brave enough, they were “blandly efficient athletic mesomorphs who could do with maddening grace what he could do only with dogged effort: strip down a weapon, set up a mortar emplacement...... and even keep their dungarees looking crisp and clean” (“Rat Beach”). Based on such thoughts, Styron portrays a soldier who judges himself as an insufficient person to partake the war. Though together with the comrades, Styron captures the thoughts and personal condemnation of a soldier who feels different from the rest of the platoon leaders. It feels that the brave talk and physical anatomy of the soldiers was rather intimidating to the sole soldier. In the individualist sense, the soldier engages in his own thoughts even when among the group and tends to look down on himself. He focuses on what he lacks to admit to defeat, which fails to evoke pity on the readers. After all, their backgrounds were expected to be different, but the fact they got Marine Corps training and were deployed in Saipan does not make anyone of them better than the other. However, the internal conflict and envy the soldier experiences, makes him develop poor judgment especially of him admitting to his inadequacy. Styron moves across time to demonstrate the contrast between the soldier, Stiles and Veneris from their backgrounds, which seeks to justify the soldier’s individualist coward opinion of the self. While Stiles and Veneris had past physical experiences and pedigrees that gave them a leadership vantage in their troops, the soldier compared it with how his background in music and literature would benefit him; in fact he admitted to being comfortable with just an average ability (Styron, “Rat Beach”). It’s not only a soldier ridiculing himself, but one inclined to losing his self-respect and pride as a person. On another angle, immersed in thoughts, you realize that the soldier attempts to make his thoughts of what other people feel, while attempting to describe his state of emotions. Fear and Tormenting Thoughts It was evident that while most of senior officers and platoon leaders lusted for the awaited war, the soldier instead failed to share his thoughts. Though in war zones, the soldier’s thoughts are completely separate and engage in a wishful thinking that is self-centered. Styron ensures to constantly keep projected the theme of fear in his style of writing, while focusing on the individualist thoughts, attitudes and acting of the soldier in a perfectly paced sequence of events. Styron uses the first persona style of narration in the story, allowing the reader to clearly capture and distinguish the tone of fear in the soldier, which is rarely expressed by others. Reading through the article, you identify the evocation of fear in the soldier at a personal level from the moment he sets foot in Saipan. Using the first persona, Styron wrote, “I was terribly afraid. The killing grounds of the recent past were for me a foretaste of things to come...” (“Rat Beach”). The ‘i’ and ‘for me’ expressed how personal the situation felt for the soldier and the impact it had on his psychological wellbeing. The stay in Saipan could not be termed vicious because the actual war awaited never gets to occur in the story; however, the soldier is constantly worried following his imaginative thoughts of what would happen, come the Japanese invasion. The fact that their base lay by the side of the road where ambulances carrying American soldiers passed through to the hospital, and the place was one hit area by American assault in the previous season set his fear in motion. Styron stated, “I was so fucking scared, there at Saipan” to an extent that one had to cautiously pussyfoot across the beach to get a swimming spot (“Rat Beach,” par. 2). Although the soldier intends to have the reader to understand how the troop members moved across, it instead allows you to perceive his timid behavior and especially when he is alone. After hours of regular training, the soldiers rest in their tents, but the fleet of ambulances ferrying wounded soldiers to the hospital remained a constant reminder of what awaited them in the invasion. He felt surrounded by death and began to evaluate his chances of survival. In a way, you realize that he finds comfort in company with his friends, but the anxiety he faces separates his thoughts from those of the rest. Several times, he engaged in a monologue with the self, wondering whether the rest felt nervous or feared the invasion like he did. Even when with the friends or alone, there seems be an inner turmoil within the soldier, which sets him in an imaginative contrast between him and the others, to discredit his leadership and ability in the awaited war. Styron wrote, “I thought I’d managed to dominate my fear, but I was wrong...” struggling with a despondent mood, unfocused anxiety, wave of panic and eventually containing himself in a little monologue briefly described the individualist behavior the soldier experienced (“Rat Beach”). For the nights described in the story, he either experienced shocking nightmares that were also self-focused, though influenced by the fear in his life. After officers’ meetings, he experiences a sleepless nights least to mention he has all the time to watch the crawling snails and count the passing ambulances, which indicates the kind of torment he is subjected to in Saipan, while the rest of the team was deep asleep. Other than in the company of comrades, he finds solace reading his pocket book of verses privately and even discovers that sleeping close to his gun helps to overcome the fear and anxiety. Individual Decisions Haunted by the dreams and series of events, the fear reaches a climax. From his thoughts, he feared he could no longer contain himself and makes a personal decision to destroy his fear forever. Someone who had previously pussyfooted at the beach, had nightmares and was tormented by passing ambulances and a war he yet awaited to see, had gathered the courage to walk out of his tent into the thick darkness. Though Styron mentions that the soldier aimed to destroy the fear forever, the reader has an idea how he intended to do it. Irrespective of whether he committed suicide or not, the soldier had worked on an objective (destroying fear) and made up his own mind and choice, which all characterize an individualist behavior. Unlike Styron’s work where the soldier is hesitant to take wise decisions, Lieutenant Henry takes immediate actions and decisions regarding what is right for the social institutions (group of drivers/officers)and later for himself (his marriage/lover). Once back on duty, Henry shoots at one of the coward engineers who refuse to help dislodge the stuck ambulance in the vehicle. Later, his colleague ends the engineer’s life. The decision could be harsh, but for cooperative purpose, it serves for the common good of the majority. Later, understanding the danger he faced from what seemed a betrayal from his troop, he takes a quick decision to shift to Switzerland, but escaped with her pregnant lover (Hemingway, “A Farewell”). In a reasonable sense, Henry admitted to his mistakes and took responsibility. When he returns to Milan, he confesses before Fugerson that “no one gets me in a mess... i get in my own messes ...” and plans to sneak off with his lover Catherine (Hemingway, A Farewell). Collective Behavior Uglifying Habit The soldiers in Styron’s story especially those who had fought in the war before had established their norms, cultures and habits. Hence, when the second lieutenants came, they had adopted the habits of the older marines, including that of ridiculing the Japanese soldiers. A research conducted by McAuliffe, Jetten, Hornsey and Hogg indicated that collectivist behavior helped maintain a group’s cohesion and that “those who identify strongly with their group are more likely to act in accordance with the salient norm” (67). When the soldier walks his colleagues down the beach in an evening, they come across the giant poster, which was a mockery of the Jap soldiers drawn as a grinning rat and with exaggerated features. Considering its exaggerations and its creation by a former American soldier, it only intensified the hatred for the enemy and was worth a joke. As a group, they had cracked jokes out of the poster elevating the Marine’s Corps uglifying habit to naming of the Rat beach after the monstrosity of the Japanese soldiers (Styron, “Rat Beach”). The soldiers are relived at the presence of Colonel Halloran who gives the reality of the situation on the ground; at one point, inflicting fear and the other, helping them release tension in a collective manner. The soldiers laugh at his jokes acting in a deviant manner to the officers producing the speeches when Halloran baited, challenged and used quite amusing words to address them and their comments. The soldiers can crack jokes together while relaxing, express their opinions tolerating each other’s’ words and make ugly jokes in a cooperative manner. Styron in several occasions tends to use the ‘we’ word to explain what they did together. Other than conducting trainings together, Styron wrote, “we joked, God how we joked—we joked all the time about our future trial..... we shared everything else—snores and farts and bad breath and odorous feet” (“Rat Beach,” par 7). Like Styron, Hemingway’s article expressed the collective behavior of soldiers but in this case, clearly communicated in dialogues. Lieutenant Henry among other officers all have collective habits of entertaining themselves during their captain’s bait to the priest. In a dialogue, the captain asked “priest to-day with girls .... Priest every night five against one” (Hemingway, A Farewell). All this time, the priest blushed and shied away, while the lieutenant Henry and the officers lighted at the joke entertaining themselves as they drank wine at the table (Hemingway, A Farewell). They seem to talk about it all, from sexual jokes, beliefs on atheism to job leaves, each expressing his own opinion and campaigning for his thoughts. Bierce’s article lacks such collective actions of the soldiers, whom in most cases, are narrated as individual entities, each in his own duty, but capable of concealing the truth to save himself. Works Cited Bierce, Ambrose. “A Horseman in the Sky.” routledge.com. n.d. Web. 3 November 2014. . Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. archive.org. 1929. Web. 2 November 2014. . McAuliffe, Brendan J., Jolanda Jetten, Matthew J. Hornsey and Michael A. Hogg. “Individualist and Collectivist Norms: When It’s Ok to go Your Own Way.” European Journal of Social Psychology 33 (2003): 57–70. . Peetz, David. Co-operative values, institutions and free riding in Australia: can it learn from Canada? griffith.edu.au. 2005. Web. 3 November 2014. . Raiit, Fiona and ‎Suzanne Zeedyk. The Implicit Relation of Psychology and Law: Women and Syndrome Evidence. Philadelphia, PA: Routledge, 2002. Print. Styron, William. “Rat Beach: Marines on Saipan Waiting to Be Deployed.” newyorker.com. 20 July 2009. Web. 2 November 2014. . Read More