Throughout the novel, Mailer dwells on many themes which reappear in his later essays and novels. One of these themes is the dehumanization of soldiers. The soldiers are continuously referred to as machines within the novel. At one point, Mailer describes this dehumanization stating,“When a man was harnessed into a pack and web belt and carried a rifle and two bandoliers and several grenades, a bayonet and a helmet, he felt as if he had a tourniquet over both shoulders and across his chest. It was hard to breathe and his limbs kept falling asleep.” Thus, in this instance,the soldier is losing grasp of his bodily functions and simply going through the motions of being a “soldier”.
Another theme, brotherhood, displays a positive of war. In feeling that they may not make it out alive, the soldiers develop strong friendships which are not relatable to people at home. Croft expresses his feelings of brotherhood and tells his comrades,“You’re all good guys. You’re all chicken, and you’re all yellow, but you’re good guys. They ain’t a goddam thing wrong with you.” This idea of brotherhood is again expressed within Part III when Brown, Goldstein, Ridges, and Stanley attempt to carry the wounded Wilson across back tocamp.
The theme of loneliness also reoccurs within the novel. Away from their family and friends at home, the soldiers are constantly lonely. The men in their ranks are of different social classes, races, and religions. Often, the men struggle finding commonalities between them. They long for women and deeper friendships. At one point, Roth wishes to have someone who he“could talk to seriously.” He realizes that he doesn’t know his own comrades very well, since everyone he had met when he initially entered the Army was either killed or reassigned somewhere else.
Not surprisingly, death and the fear of dying also invade the war novel. The men are faced with unexpected deaths from Hennessey to Gallagher’s wife to Hearn. It is clear that death surrounds them. Cummings, having been surrounded by Army deaths the majority of his career, still never warms to the smell of dead corpses. Roth, like the other soldiers, realizes that he or one of his comrades could be killed any minute. Like Hennessey orHearn, death is a gunshot away.
A larger theme, power, is best exemplified through General Cummings himself. Cummings compares himself to the“chief monk” and God throughout the book. He also openly supports the class system within the military, ordering Hearn that as an officer he must accept the “emotional prejudices of his class.” People of higher ranks like Hearn and Cummings, after all, enjoy a better quality of life than theother foot soldiers. They sleep in larger staterooms while the soldiers share small rooms and are jammed into cots. This power system is reinforced within the missions themselves. After Hearn dies, Croft takes over leading the platoon up the mountain. While the other soldiers clearly want to stop and give up, they continue hiking the mountain simply because their authority figure, Croft, demands that they not give up. Thus, this is another instance where the undemocratic nature of the Army is apparent.
Misogyny also occurs within the novel. Like Mailer’s other works, The Naked and the Dead constantly portrays women as sexual objects who are unequal to men. Many men, especially Brown, fear that their wives are cheating on them while they fight in the war. This only causes them to have more hatred towards women. Brown tells Stanley that if he finds out his wife has cheated on him, he will beat her then throw her out. Later, in the Chorus“Women,” Polack insists that “there ain’t a fuggin woman is any good” and Brown agrees. Women are especially emphasized within Time Machine segments. Here the men’s romantic relationships and sexual experiences are heavily described. In many of the Time Machines, such as Martinez, womenare portrayed as simply sexual objects.
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