Steinbeck's "Why Soldiers Won't Talk": War and the Psyche

Introduction: Shifting Perspective in the Essay

One of the most interesting aspects of John Steinbeck's essay Why Soldiers Won't Talk is the way in which he subtly shifts from the first person to the second person. He begins by stating that he himself is not a soldier: "During the years between the last war and this one, I was always puzzled by the reticence of ex-soldiers about their experiences in battle" (Steinbeck 1). According to Steinbeck, however, he has gradually come to understand why soldiers struggle to articulate the horrors they have witnessed. The essay then makes a major shift from "I" to "you": "This is how you feel after a few days of constant firing. Your skin feels thick and insensitive. There is a salty taste in your mouth" (Steinbeck 1).

Steinbeck asks the reader to identify with the soldier as if he or she were in combat. This was typical of many of Steinbeck's imaginative exercises as a writer. As the acclaimed author of works such as Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck frequently encouraged readers to personally identify with protagonists meant to symbolize larger aspects of the human condition.

Steinbeck's Biography and Literary Development

John Steinbeck was born in 1902 in a California farming town to a mother who was a former teacher and a father who worked a variety of jobs over the course of his life, including owning a feed and grain store. Steinbeck was accepted to university but never graduated. "Writing was, indeed, his passion, not only during the university years but throughout his life. From 1919 to 1925, when he finally left without taking a degree, Steinbeck dropped in and out of the university, sometimes to work closely with migrants and bindlestiffs on California ranches. Those relationships, coupled with an early sympathy for the weak and defenseless, deepened his empathy for workers, the disenfranchised, the lonely and dislocated, an empathy that is characteristic in his work" (Shillinglaw 1). Over the next ten years, Steinbeck refined his prose, focusing on migrant workers as well as on the relationship of human beings to the land.

His most famous novel, The Grapes of Wrath, makes use of literary conventions similar to those in "Why Soldiers Won't Talk." The book tells the story of the Joad family, a group of Okies who have lost everything in the Dust Bowl and travel throughout California in search of a better life. Although the book focuses on the family, the narrative takes a number of detours: in one chapter, for instance, the Joads do not appear at all. Steinbeck depicts a prosperous diner where a group of hungry people beg to buy a loaf of bread for a dime. The waitress is initially harsh toward them — representing the attitude of many Americans toward the poor, even during the Depression — but eventually softens, gives them the bread, and sells nickel candy to the children for a penny (Steinbeck 156–159). The rest of the book does not follow these people; rather, the author's camera pans out to show how the Joads are not unique but are symbolic of a larger social problem.

Environment, Empathy, and the Psychology of Combat

Steinbeck has, above all, been called a novelist intent upon depicting his environment. Professor Susan Shillinglaw praises "Steinbeck's awareness of an essential bond between humans and the environments they inhabit. His conviction that characters must be seen in the context of their environments remained constant throughout his career" (Shillinglaw 1). Although "Why Soldiers Won't Talk" is not explicitly California-based, nor is it about farmers in the manner of The Grapes of Wrath or Of Mice and Men, it demonstrates how history and environment can permanently shape the psyche of soldiers. Steinbeck has been called a social activist as an author because of his belief in the interrelated relationship between human beings and the world that creates them.

Being a soldier is itself created by environment — even the heroism and bravery that soldiers are so often credited with. "In the dullness all kinds of emphases change. Even the instinct for self-preservation is dulled so that a man may do things which are called heroic when actually his whole fabric of reaction is changed. The whole world becomes unreal" (Steinbeck 1). Steinbeck thus deflates the common notion that war is a glorious endeavor and that natural heroes are produced in wartime. He also mourns the fact that soldiers are forever changed by their experiences — what today we would likely call post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although Steinbeck admittedly never experienced combat himself, he imagines what it is like and argues that the experience of battle leaves a permanent psychological mark on all men, regardless of whether they are taciturn or garrulous, brave or cowardly by nature.