War Beyond War

Taking four American classical war novels in the20th as examples:From here to eternity by James Jones; The Naked and the Death by Norman Mailer; Catch-22by Joseph Heller; and A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, this thesis analyzes some images of soldiers in American war novels. Through detailed investigation of the text, and a combination of the related social setting of America, from the soldiers’ desire for winning the honor of battlefield to deserting for fear of death, the paper probes into the reasons for their escaping as well as different attitudes of the individuals in different periods towards war.According to a series of diverse figures created in the four different literary works, it is concluded that the word "deserters" has a quite different meaning from its original definition. Soldiers’ deserting or resisting against the Army does not stand for being weak. On the contrary, their actions show a kind of bravery in a special period. It is the nature for human being to pursue freedom and respect life. Life refuses the wars, and life needs reason.