Literary Precedents for On Distant Ground

This Study Guide consists of approximately 15 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of On Distant Ground.

Literary Precedents for On Distant Ground

This Study Guide consists of approximately 15 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of On Distant Ground.
This section contains 136 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page)
Buy the On Distant Ground Short Guide

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.

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This section contains 136 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page)
Buy the On Distant Ground Short Guide
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On Distant Ground from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.