American Sniper Themes

It’s impossible to understand Navy SEAL Chris Kyle’s memoir American Sniper fully without understanding the history of the so-called War on Terror—the era following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, when the United States stepped up its efforts to fight terrorism around the world, especially in the Middle East. Under the leadership of President George W. Bush, the military deployed troops to Afghanistan, followed by Iraq. At first, the military’s stated goal in…

Chris Kyle ships out to the Middle East in 2003, only a few months after marrying his wife, Taya Kyle. Throughout American Sniper, he writes about his conflicting loyalties: he loves Taya and his children, but he also wants to serve his country in Iraq. In a different sense, American Sniper shows Kyle negotiating the tension between country and family—the war front and the home front.

For most of the book, Kyle ranks…

One of the most troubling aspects of American Sniper is Chris Kyle’s view of Middle Easterners—a view that a great many people have interpreted as outright racism. Again and again, Kyle refers to the people he encounters in Iraq as “savages.” At times, it seems that he’s strictly referring to insurgents and terrorists; however, there are many points in the book in which he suggests all Iraqis are savage, brutal, and inhuman. Shortly after…

It is very difficult to discuss trauma in American Sniper, because the author, Chris Kyle, barely mentions it; in fact, he never once uses the word. While many soldiers who served in Iraq suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of their experiences (including guilt for killing other human beings), Kyle claims that he always relished killing Iraqi insurgents, and knows that one day, God will forgive him for his kills…