Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Reckoning, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Guilt and Legacy
Morality, Survival, and Perspective
Sexuality and Shame
Body Image and Publicity
Indifference vs. Feeling
Summary
Analysis
In 2003, Magda and Peter watch the invasion of Iraq on TV. When Peter, who is opposed to the war, exclaims that the Americans will never get out alive, Magda says that America is a powerful “war machine.” Peter retorts that the Nazis were the biggest war power in Europe, but they couldn’t defeat the Polish, who had nothing. He adds that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. With pride, that “bastard emotion,” Peter boasts about how he organized assassinations. When Peter sees the invasion of Iraq, he sees the Germans. While Peter clutches a blanket around his now always cold body, Magda proofreads the letters Peter wrote in protest of the war in Iraq, and their sentiment moves her to tears. One of the letters is published in the Age, but it makes no difference.
Peter’s experience with war embitters him to all war, even war waged in the name of the good. This reveals how relative war is. In war, there are two sides, and each believes that they are fighting in the right. Moreover, Peter sees that the outcome of war is always unpredictable: material power is no guarantee of success. Not only can no one be confident that they are fighting for the good, but no one can be sure that they will win. Peter’s experience with war leads him ultimately to pleas for peace. Direct experience of war—in its uncertainty and relativity—make him opposed to war.
Themes
