The precedent image in the World War II trilogy by J. Jones

Abstract

In this article, we take a look at how precedent finds its way into the World War II trilogy by the American author J. Jones (From Here to Eternity, The Thin Red Line and Whistle). The trilogy stands out for an actual lack of a common storyline between the three novels. In the first one, the author determines protagonists’ motivational constructs and archetypes (The First Sergeant, The Rebellious Private, The Mess Sergeant and The Clerk Struggling with His Identity). These have been dissected by M. Ross in his book James Jones’s Codes of Conduct). Their reappearance in later novels qualifies them as precedent. The key mechanisms behind the use of precedents include figurative differentiation (the disintegration of archetypes into self-sufficient elements) and the motif’s evolution (the complication of motivic constructs and their integration with more complex word systems). Of particular interest is the non-identical development of motivic structures within the trilogy: many characters in the first novel do not evolve in subsequent ones, while image differentiation serves to develop the characters’ storylines and expose their coherent cyclicity (the archetype of The Rebellious Private goes back to The Clerk Struggling with His Identity and evolves into The First Sergeant). Complex interaction of the motivic constructs in the trilogy determines the complexity of the narrative models stated by the writer. Imagery development and archetype complication determine the evolution of romantic patheticness in the first novel through naturalism in the second into sharp existentialism in the third. The development of J. Jones’s ‘soldier’s fate’ idea reveals his contradictory attitude to the war and military service, emphasizing the anti-militarist pathos of the trilogy.