Ironizing the Heoric Struggle for Dignity in Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead

Abstract

Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead ironizes the heroic struggle which is fought to gain dignity. War is always supposed to be heroic as people get involved in war in the name of sacrifice, patriotism and dignity but it is actually not other than the political representation of society or nation thereby hiding the dirty political game. In fact, war is the excessive exercise of power, the use of force to cause physical harm, death and destruction through brainwash. Mailer shows his characters alienated from life that is full of pain and problem, death and destruction but not filled with heroism and dignity to ironize the so-called heroic war.