Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Starship Troopers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Militarism
Citizenship
Moral Decline and Discipline
Communism vs. Moral Individualism
Summary
Analysis
Cap trooper Johnnie Rico always gets the shakes before he “drops” from the spaceship Roger Young into a mission. The psychiatrist assures him that the shakes aren’t fear—they’re more like the excitement of a racehorse. But Johnnie knows that he’s “scared silly, every time.” Johnnie shakes while the troops are called for pre-drop inspection by Sergeant Jelal, whom they affectionately call “Jelly.” He’s acting as platoon leader because their former commander, Lieutenant Rasczak, died on the last mission. Jelly is a small but mighty “Finno-Turk from Iskander around Proxima,” who is friendly and approachable to the troops when off-duty.
Johnnie Rico tells his own story in first person, and his admission of getting the shakes immediately establishes him as a reliable and relatable narrator. He’s not afraid to admit that he gets scared before dropping, and he does so even though the psychiatrist’s explanation gives him an out. Johnnie’s story begins in what readers will learn is the “Bug War.” Later, he will explain how soldiers only see their own little bit of the war, and this introduction replicates that experience for readers, who feel what it’s like to not see the whole picture. Sergeant Jelal’s friendly relationship with the men establishes the sense of familial camaraderie that characterizes the Mobile Infantry and is one of the reasons Johnnie loves being a soldier so much. Finally, Jelly’s bio establishes both the story’s interstellar setting—he’s from a human colony that orbits a distant star—and the book’s utopian vision of a unified humanity where racial and cultural divisions, like his Finnish and Turkish heritage, don’t matter.
Themes
Jelly inspects everyone’s combat equipment (even though it’s already been checked by each soldier and by the acting platoon sergeant), and he also checks on the men. When Jenkins’s suit reads out that he has a fever, Jelly pulls him from the lineup. Johnnie—recently promoted to assistant section leader due to the Lieutenant’s death—now has a man missing from his section, which could create a dangerous situation on the ground.
Jenkins’s desire to drop even though he’s feeling unwell demonstrates his commitment to the M.I. and the power of the military ethos in this world. But if he goes into battle in less than perfect condition, he risks endangering everyone’s lives. The needs of the whole team are more important in this case than his individual desire to participate. Johnnie’s field promotion establishes his personal merit—yes, Jelly has to fill slots opened by the death of other soldiers, but Johnnie has still been chosen over other possibilities.
Themes
Jelly reminds the men of their training, tells them to focus on their mission instead of being heroes, and reiterates the mission brief: the troops will drop in two groups and advance by turns as they surround the target area. This is a raid, not a battle: the goal is to show the enemy that they could have destroyed the city but didn’t. The troops shouldn’t take prisoners or kill anyone unnecessarily, but they should use as much “firepower and frightfulness” as possible. Finally, Jelly reminds Rasczak’s Roughnecks that they have a reputation to maintain; before the Lieutenant died, he told Jelly to tell the men “that he will always have his eye on you…and that he expects you to shine!”
Jelly’s pre-drop speech highlights the militaristic values of the Mobile Infantry: coordination, dedication, and destruction. The close-knit devotion of the Roughnecks to each other and to their Lieutenant, even after his death, conveys a key component of the book’s celebration of the military: the platoon is a family that cares deeply about its members. Jelly’s final words of inspiration, which he attributes to the Lieutenant, serve to keep his memory alive among the men. His words will also show up as significant in Chapter 14.
Themes
Johnnie’s attention turns to Sergeant Migliaccio, first section leader and platoon chaplain. In the past, chaplains were non-combatants, but Johnnie doesn’t understand how someone could “bless anything he’s not willing to do himself.” Before the drop, “Moslems, Christians, Gnostics, [and] Jews” are all free to see the chaplain.
The platoon’s chaplain serves soldiers of all faiths, another indication that humanity in this imagined future has overcome the religious divisions that were the basis for wars in earlier centuries. It’s also important that the chaplain is an active duty solider: in the 20th and 21st centuries, chaplains were non-combatants. The militaristic values of the Terran Federation emphasize self-sacrifice as a demonstration of civic virtue, and the ultimate expression is dying to protect others. There can be no non-combatants, because non-combatants aren’t making the same sacrifices as everyone else.
Themes
Get the entire Starship Troopers LitChart as a printable PDF.
Migliaccio comes over to speak privately with Johnnie. This is his first drop as a “non-com,” although he doesn’t feel that either he or Jelly have moved up the ranks. Migliaccio reminds him to avoid “buy[ing] a farm”—dying—by sticking to the mission and avoiding personal heroics. As the troops climb into their capsules, Johnnie wonders whether the Greeks got the shakes as they climbed into the Trojan Horse. Jelly seals him into the capsule with a final reminder to treat the mission like a drill. Shaking worse than ever, Johnnie waits for his capsule to be deployed. The worst shakes come from knowing that there’s no chance of escape if the ship gets hit.
Johnnie’s recent promotion has raised him to the rank of “non-com” or non-commissioned officer, giving him authority over and responsibility for the men in his section. This chain of command is a key component of military culture. His inability to truly feel that he’s been promoted indicates the profound shock of Lieutenant Rasczak’s death; neither he nor anyone else has had time to get used to the new normal. Migliaccio warns Johnnie not to “buy a farm,” a euphemism for death commonly used by the cap troopers. Although it may seem to indicate a light attitude towards death, euphemistic language often serves to soften distasteful or alarming subjects. The ever-present reality of death also contributes to Johnnie’s pre-drop shakes. In fact, his fear of dying in the tube if the ship gets hit is well-founded: this happens to some of his friends later in the book (Chapter 10). His rumination about the feelings of ancient Greek soldiers connects his adventures to a long history of human militarism stretching back thousands of years.
Themes
Suddenly, the G-forces of the ship’s deceleration slam Johnnie into his straps. Despite his discomfort, he respects Captain Deladrier and her flying. Most ship captains are females, because their reaction time is faster, and they can withstand more G-forces than males. Johnnie’s capsule bumps forward one place at a time toward the end of the launch tube. By the time he’s shot into the upper atmosphere, his shakes have stopped.
Both Johnnie’s respect for Captain Deladrier and the Terran Federation’s preference for female pilots seems to point to a future in which there’s less gendered division, just like there’s less emphasis on national or religious differences. Her excellent flight skills also introduce the key theme of moral individualism, which values a person’s unique, human intuition and skill augmented by training. Johnnie trusts the Captain’s skill as much as his own, and remembering their training helps to calm his fears.
Themes
While descending, the capsules slough off three layers, slowing down their fall and creating a debris field that confuses ground forces and hides the cap troopers from radar. When he’s 1.8 miles from the ground, Johnnie jettisons the final layer of the shell. It’s nighttime, but his suit’s infrared “snoopers” let him see the terrain clearly, including the river. Someone on the ground shoots into the debris field but misses him. Johnnie deploys his parachute to slow his descent and get out of the attacker’s sights.
The capsules offer several forms of protection to the troopers as they drop towards the planet. A Mobile Infantryman is particularly vulnerable because he engages in close-range combat. But he’s also valuable to the military, and many precautions are taken to protect infantrymen as much as possible. That Johnnie can fall from nearly two miles in just his suit points to the military’s advanced technology, and the snoopers are but one of the super-charged powers they give the cap troopers. The suits protect the troopers just as the cap troopers protect the interests of the Terran Federation.
Themes
As he lands on the roof of a building near the river, Johnnie looks for Jelly’s beacon and he realizes he’s on the wrong side of it. Seeing that Ace, one of his squad leaders, is out of position, Johnnie orders him to fix his formation. Then he jumps across the river while bombing the building, and he’s nearly knocked out of the sky because he’s too close to the explosion. Realizing he’s gotten excited, Johnnie remembers to approach the mission like a drill—with precision. Ace straightens his line but doesn’t acknowledge Johnnie’s order. Johnnie was promoted above Ace, and he knows that he’ll need to assert his dominance over Ace soon.
Johnnie’s miscalculation has brought him very close to just the kind of behavior both Jelly and Migliaccio warned him against, and he quickly refocuses himself on his work. Although he gets a thrill from battle, it’s his job to be a soldier. There’s friction between Ace and Johnnie because Ace is older and more experienced—normally he’d be giving the orders, not taking them. Johnnie worries about asserting his authority over Ace because this will prove his aptitude for leadership in the platoon. In a militaristic culture defined by violence, it’s the strongest and best that survive and get promoted.
Themes
While jumping the river, Johnnie spotted some important-looking buildings on a hill, and as he awaits his turn to advance, he aims one of his suit’s “pee-wee” atomic bombs at it. The flash of the atomic explosion is unmistakable. It destroys the target, forces civilians to shelter against fallout, and may temporarily blind any hostiles unlucky enough to look. As the flash subsides, Johnnie finds himself face to face with a local, whom he “toasts” with his flame-thrower while he jumps towards the next line of buildings.
The futuristic technology of the suits allows each man in the M.I. to be as well armored as a plane or a tank might have been in the 20th or 21st century. Johnnie’s atomic bomb, even though it’s small, helps to demonstrate the suits’ power, both because he’s able to carry it with him and because he’s shielded from its radioactive fallout. Despite the increasing attention that the troopers have drawn to themselves—shown by Johnnie’s encounter with a hostile local—he continues to do his job in a methodical way.
Themes
The troopers’ suits allow them to jump far and high. Johnnie misjudges his next jump and finds himself approaching a roof full of pipes and obstacles and some of the natives (humanoid aliens that are taller and skinnier than humans). Johnnie prefers to fight the “Skinnies” rather than the arachnids because the “Bugs” nauseate him. Johnnie “bounces” off. With each jump, he looks for a worthwhile target, hoping to find the waterworks. When he’s tempted to jump higher to see farther, he remembers Migliaccio’s words and resumes doing things by the book. Just as he thinks he's spotted the waterworks, he hears Jelly’s order for the troops to begin circling up and converging.
The suits augment the soldiers’ movements, although their technology won’t be explained until a later chapter. The distinction between the “Skinnies” and the “Bugs” provides the first clue about the war’s circumstances and adds to the futuristic vision of a universe in which humans aren’t the only sentient species. Because Johnnie refers to the Arachnid species almost entirely by the derogatory term “Bugs,” readers never learn the proper name for the Skinnies; the hostility and competition between these species and the humans reduces Johnnie’s ability to recognize their value.
Themes
Now that the leapfrogging advance is over, Johnnie can concentrate on speed and destruction. The danger rises as the troops lose the element of surprise, and the locals are beginning to shoot back. Johnnie narrowly escapes a few attacks, including one that leaves him momentarily paralyzed. That’s the kind of moment that might make one question military service, but Johnnie is too busy with the mission to second-guess himself. When a building explodes under him, he decides to go through the next few streets at ground level. He cuts into a building and discovers a hive of Skinnies who begin to shoot at him, but he tosses in a bomb and jumps away.
Johnnie’s brief series of near misses illustrates the dangers of war, even with the protections offered by the suit. He’s saved twice when the discipline and doctrine instilled by his extensive training allow him to react instinctively to threats to his life.
Themes
Within minutes, the troops have closed the circle, but because their retrieval beacon hasn’t yet arrived, Jelly tells them to continue to destroy things while they converge on their pickup location. The troops call in, but one of Ace’s soldiers—Dizzy Flores—is missing. Ace reports that he’s already out for pickup, and Johnnie heads out to help, because pickups are the assistant section leader’s job. Just then, he hears the retrieval beacon broadcasting the platoon’s song, which means that the retrieval vehicle will arrive within three minutes. Johnnie continues toward Flores because “you don’t walk away on another cap trooper, not while there’s a chance he’s still alive.”
The mission appears to be going according to plan—so well, in fact, that there’s time for the soldiers to destroy still more property before they head back to the ship. Dizzy seems to be in trouble, but the M.I. don’t abandon their own. Despite the personal risks—there are still hostile locals out there, and taking time to make a pickup could keep Johnnie and Ace from retrieval—neither hesitates before heading out to rescue him. It takes a deep sense of duty towards others to care for one’s mates in this way, and this theme of the mutual responsibility between individuals and groups will be explored throughout Johnnie’s story.
Themes
Johnnie closes in on Ace’s locator beacon, while Ace tells him it’s useless and that he should leave. Johnnie ignores him. He finds Ace standing over the grievously wounded Flores. Doctrine says to take a man out of his suit and carry him back for retrieval, but Flores’s injuries mean he can’t safely be removed. Instead, Ace and Johnnie pick him up, suit and all, and begin jumping back with him towards the beacon. The combined power of their two suits is just enough to lift him, but they are still too far away when the retrieval boat lands.
The Flores pickup also extends Ace and Johnnie’s earlier conflict over dominance: Ace wants to take full responsibility for his squad member, but Johnnie joins in. The assistant section leader is responsible for pickups, but Johnnie also seems eager to show Ace who’s boss. And the fact that hauling Flores back to the retrieval boat ends up requiring both men seems to support Johnnie’s choices. In adjusting their actions according to the situation rather than blindly following doctrine, Ace and Johnnie demonstrate the moral individualism idealized in their world.
Themes
Jelly delays the troops from boarding just enough to race to Ace and Johnnie and help carry Flores. The four troopers arrive at the boat just in time to board. As they take off, Jelly whispers to himself (as if he’s talking to Lieutenant Rasczak), “All present, Lieutenant.” Retrieval rendezvous are precisely planned and calculated to coincide with the spaceship’s orbit, and they can’t be changed. Nevertheless, Captain Deladrier noticed the short delay, manually braked, and readjusted her trajectory on the fly to collect the retrieval boat. Flores “die[s] on the way up.”
Jelly also breaks doctrine, but his actions put the entire platoon in jeopardy. Due to the recent loss of Rasczak, Jelly’s delay functions—much like his promotion of Johnnie over Ace—to prevent disruption to the family as much as possible. The potentially horrific consequences of his choice are prevented by Captain Deladrier’s unique combination of instinct and skill.
Themes
