Full Metal Jacket: The Duality Of Man

The duality of man is a struggle in the mind of every human being, it is a characteristic of being two fold, having two different sides to a personality, a kind of Dr. Jackal and Mr. Hyde inside of everyone. Humans all contain that good verses evil, that little devil on the left shoulder and the angle on the right, talking to people during any given choice in life. The film “Full Metal Jacket” demonstrates the duality of man and symbolizes in many ways the shaping of a human beings mind and character to one side or another. Sergeant Hartman starts the film with a remarkable motivational speech setting a definite tone on how the young solders are going to be trained, how they are going to act and most importantly how they are going to think.
However sometimes the complete change to a mans duality during boot camp can cause a man to truly snap as seen in Private Pile’s case. Private Pile seemed to be quite a bit of a mama’s boy, a little soft, as one might say. In the beginning of the film private pile is ordered to choke himself with Sergeant Hartman’s hand because he could not stop laughing. Throughout boot camp Private Pile continues to struggle with all the different drills and training methods Sergeant Hartman ordered the troops to do. Sergeant Hartman did not make it easy either, continuously shouting and breaking down the young private. He said things like “Are you quitting on me? Well, are you? Then quit, you slimy walrus-looking piece of!”, “Were you born a fat, slimy, scumbag puke, Private Pyle, or did you have to work on it?” and “Oh that's right, Private Pyle, does not make any effort to get to the top of the obstacle. If God would have wanted you up there he would have miracled your but up there by now”. This continuous teardown slowly broke down Pile, it made him question himself but while doing so he was also being mentally trained to be a killer which ultimately turned out to be a very dangerous combination. However Private Pile still had his fellow soldiers behind him and Sergeant Hartman even assigned Private Joker to watch over him, and even though he did so by telling Joker that Pile was now his
The films scenes at Vietnam was a huge strength because there was so much symbolism used that really opened ones mind to think about what went on. The most outstanding symbolic event throughout the whole entire film was when the soldiers went to war Private Joker had on his helmet “Born to kill” but on his uniform he had a peace symbol. This was an incredible symbolic representation of the film because it was exactly what Stanley Kubrick (The Director) was trying to establish in the audiences minds; the change in ones mind during war and the struggle that continues to take place during war between good and evil were represented between the born to kill on his helmet and the peace symbol on his chest. The ironic thing about war and what is represented in this film is the idea that ones country trains and convinces ones mind to believe that evil is ok during war. Another significant symbolic scene was when several troops where shot and killed and they finally were able to get to the single sniper to find that it was a female. The idea represented by this, is that we were not just fighting another army; we were fighting an entire country. What Kubrick was trying to show was that the war in Vietnam was not men verses men or a military verse a military, this war was The United States Military forces verses the entire country of North Vietnam and even