Wartime: Understanding And Behavior In The Second World War By Fussell

In Fussell’s novel “Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War Summary & Study Guide,” he critiques the media and how they portrayed World War II. During World War II graphic posters were being posted and displayed for the public to see. In Chapter One of the novel Fussell talks about posters involving a paratrooper slowly descending to the ground covered in blood with his head hung. The lifeless body of a paratrooper falling to the ground shows people a graphic image that shows people what American forces were possibly dealing with overseas. Fussell’s novel centers on the culture and literature produced during the time of World War II. I choose to read this novel because Fussell’s opinions fascinated me and led me to brainstorm about what the public thought about World War II as a whole. Fussell mentions the strategies that were used by politicians and military leaders to hide the graphic images from the warzone away from the public. I felt that politicians and military leaders feared a dropout way from the draft because of the pictures of soldiers dying on the battlefield might be unsettling for some people. In Chapter One, “From Light to Heavy Duty,” Fussell
Fussell said that soldiers would just aim in a general direction and open fire and not bother to aim. This was a sign that soldiers were accepting the worst outcome, death. This chapter really opened up my eyes since I always assumed soldiers had a fighting spirit no matter what the circumstances were. I was taught this through my grandpa who actually served in the military during World War II that when he was on the battlefield he would not stop fighting no matter what happened. His objective by the end of the day would be to live another day. Fussell opened up my eyes with his perspective on the war and how soldiers treated