War is Kind: Idealization in Militarism

Abstract

The questions being considered throughout the length of this Thesis relate to masculinity in militarism and the effects of idealizing the two in relation to each other. The essential questions are: What causes militarism to be idealized? Does war create a need for masculinity, or does masculinity create a need for war? What are the effects of idealizing combat on such a large and destructive scale? My methods for answering these questions include sitting in on and transcribing interviews with recent combat veterans, as well as researching articles written on war and masculinity from scholarly journals. I also endeavor to look at representations of war-time masculinity in literature, both fiction and non-fiction. Resulting from this research, the conclusion of my Thesis will explain how an idealized sense of masculinity can effect soldiers going to and returning to war in both negative and positive manners.