On Distant Ground | Literary Precedents

On Distant Ground Literary Precedents

Often readers comparing more recent literature to earlier "war stories" look back to classics such as Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage (1895; see separate entry) or Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (1929; see separate entry) for models of soldiers struggling to understand themselves as they react to privation, boredom, desperation and horrors of warfare. In On Distant Ground, Butler portrays a minimum of violence, focusing far more on the soldier laboring to interpret his feelings and actions, and to choose to act righdy. In this regard, this novel shows more parallel to Ernest Hemingway's several short stories that feature his moody, inarticulate World War I veteran, Nick, attempting to understand his place in the world and not fitting in well with his family after he has returned to civilian life.