Illumination Rounds

Blog Post 1: 

Illumination Rounds

by Michael Herr

Pages 327-341

Illumination Rounds is a 1969 essay by Michael Herr, a correspondent for Esquire magazine during the Vietnam War, and published in Herr’s 1977 book, Dispatches. Herr spent over a year in Vietnam during some of the most intense fighting, and, uninhibited by deadlines, traveled about at will, experiencing the war alongside American troops. The essay portrays the war through Herr’s eyes and through the eyes of those with whom he came into contact in short, provoking stories. He paints a grotesque picture of warfare as someone seeing its brutality for the first time.

The title, Illumination Rounds, is a double entendre. Illumination rounds are used militarily to light up the enemy at night. However, the essay is meant to act as an illumination of the realities of war to a naive American public. Herr entered the war zone blind to its brutality, once describing a dead boy’s hand as a “pound of liver fresh from the butcher paper” (Herr 328). The metaphor exemplifies how death appears to a man seeing it for the first time. The comparison that he chose helps Herr to illuminate the horrors of war to Americans, as relating a man to a piece of meat is highly disturbing. In peacetime, humans regard themselves as superior to all other creatures. War, however, makes corpses of man and beast equally.

Additionally, Herr makes known the corruption of warfare. He comments on some American civilian engineers, who were well-paid by the government and had their salaries matched on the black market (Herr 329). He describes their sad mistresses and their insensitivity to Vietnamese culture (Herr 330). In another portrait of Special Forces captain he met, he tells the story of a man who received a medal through a lie (Herr 331). His testimonial experience in the first case, and the quoted story of a real man in the second build Herr’s credibility. The blatant corruption of the matters reveals the lawlessness of war, helping him to achieve his purpose. Herr’s written images of Vietnam would not allow an American audience to see war the same way again.

(348 words)

 

Photo by Horst Faas, 1965

"War will make corpses of us all" 

The image and essay relate closely with a quote from Faramir in The Two Towers (film). An addition not included in Tolkien's original work, the character states that "war will make corpses of us all." Through the combination of death and corruption exposed by Herr, it is clear that whether one becomes a literal, lifeless corpse, or suffers the fate of the corrupt, a body rid of morality, war does indeed make corpses of all. Similarly, the band on this soldier's helmet says "war is Hell." Again, whether or not one is physically dead, he or she still experiences hellish horrors.