In the beginning of the semester for my American History 121 class, Gender, Race, and
Violence In U.S. History, 1877-Present. We were given a choice between two books the
first being “Jarhead” by Anthony Swofford and the second was “Assata” by Assata
Shakur. I had always been a big fan of war movies throughout my life so I figured that I
would enjoy reading Jarhead. The main reason I picked Jarhead over Assata was because
for pleasure last semester I had read the book “No Easy Day” by Mark Owen and I
couldn’t put the book down until I was finished with it. When I started to read Jarhead it
didn’t start out as interesting as No Easy Day but after reading both books I think that I
have come to like Jarhead more than No Easy Day. The reason I liked Jarhead better was
for that fact that he tells the story how it is, with no added glamour. While I was reading
this book I also learned a lot about the marines, not only what they go through while they
are serving either at a camp or in the field but about how mentally tough they are on each
other. “Like most good and great marines, I hated the corps. I hated being a marine
because more than all the things in the world I wanted to be—smart, famous, sexy,
oversexed, drunk, fucked, high, alone, famous, smart, known, understood, loved,
forgiven, oversexed, drunk, high, smart, sexy—more than all of those thing I was a
marine. A jarhead. A Grunt.
I hated the marines and I hated being a marine. I wore earrings while on leave and liberty,
grew sideburns, hung out with gay navy guys who knew the best straight clubs
anywhere.” (Swofford 33)
I thought this excerpt from the book was important because he is talking about how much
he hates being a jarhead. A couple lines later he writes about how when he partied at
enlisted clubs things never went well, whether it was an enormous fight between jarheads
and airmen. This was shocking to me because before I had read the book I never would
have thought that different branches of the military would actually fight with each other
while they were out for a night in the town. I figured that had a playful rivalry between
each other but nothing that would lead to a fight. But what more could you expect from a
