User:Chelsey.brantley/sandbox: Difference between revisions

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memory and interpretations of . . . [these events] are truly breathtaking.”{{pg|487|488}}

This speaks well of Mailer’s journalistic sensibilities and his hope to avoid a

forest of inaccuracies himself. To this end, it is important to recall that ''Armies''

won a Polk Award for excellence in journalism.

One of the achievements of ''Armies'' is that in it Mailer is able to designate the marchers as patriots, a far cry from the criticism that labeled them “draft

dodgers,” “communists,” and “rabble rousers.” In contrast, Mailer describes draft resisters as moral and courageous: “by handing in draft cards, these

young men were committing their future either to prison, emigration, frustration,

or at best, years where everything must be unknown, and that spoke

of a readiness to take moral leaps . . . [and a] faith in one’s ability to react with

grace."{{sfn|Mailer|1988|p=88}} Mailer recasts draft dodgers as draft resisters, those willing to risk their lives for peace rather than war. Furthermore, Mailer aligns the march itself with America’s long tradition of ostensibly just and triumphant empire-building conflict. He describes the March on the Pentagon as a rite of passage and connects this to a collection of American moments that could be understood as similar rites of passage, for “each generation

of Americans had forged their own rite, in the forest of the Alleghenies and the Adirondacks, at Valley Forge, at New Orleans in 1812, with Rogers and Clark or at Sutter’s Mill, at Gettysburg, the Alamo, the Klondike, the Argonne, Normandy, Pusan."{{sfn|Mailer|1988|p=308}} Such a comparison implies that without undergoing such crises the U.S. would not have become a sovereign republic, and so the March on the Pentagon is figured as another historic challenge for the country. This lofty rhetoric is meant to stir a reader’s patriotic sympathies, and Mailer is determined that his audience will see the marchers not as subversives but as patriots within the traditions of American democracy.

===Citations===

@@ Line 109: / Line 109: @@
 memory and interpretations of . . . [these events] are truly breathtaking.”{{pg|487|488}}
+This speaks well of Mailer’s journalistic sensibilities and his hope to avoid a
+forest of inaccuracies himself. To this end, it is important to recall that ''Armies''
+won a Polk Award for excellence in journalism.
+One of the achievements of ''Armies'' is that in it Mailer is able to designate the marchers as patriots, a far cry from the criticism that labeled them “draft
+dodgers,” “communists,” and “rabble rousers.” In contrast, Mailer describes draft resisters as moral and courageous: “by handing in draft cards, these
+young men were committing their future either to prison, emigration, frustration,
+or at best, years where everything must be unknown, and that spoke
+of a readiness to take moral leaps . . . [and a] faith in one’s ability to react with
+grace."{{sfn|Mailer|1988|p=88}} Mailer recasts draft dodgers as draft resisters, those willing to risk their lives for peace rather than war. Furthermore, Mailer aligns the march itself with America’s long tradition of ostensibly just and triumphant empire-building conflict. He describes the March on the Pentagon as a rite of passage and connects this to a collection of American moments that could be understood as similar rites of passage, for “each generation
+of Americans had forged their own rite, in the forest of the Alleghenies and the Adirondacks, at Valley Forge, at New Orleans in 1812, with Rogers and Clark or at Sutter’s Mill, at Gettysburg, the Alamo, the Klondike, the Argonne, Normandy, Pusan."{{sfn|Mailer|1988|p=308}} Such a comparison implies that without undergoing such crises the U.S. would not have become a sovereign republic, and so the March on the Pentagon is figured as another historic challenge for the country. This lofty rhetoric is meant to stir a reader’s patriotic sympathies, and Mailer is determined that his audience will see the marchers not as subversives but as patriots within the traditions of American democracy.
 ===Citations===