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
As he returns to the ship after the raid that killed Dizzy Flores, a Navy gunner asks Johnnie how the mission went and complains that the M.I. soldiers have it “soft” because they only drop occasionally, while he’s on duty daily. In truth, cap troopers’ “long and busy” careers might only consist of a few hours of actual combat, and it’s three weeks before they arrive at the next drop. They spend most of this time training and maintaining the suits. Jelal promotes Johnnie to corporal.
The Navy gunner’s comments illustrate the differences between the branches of the military. Johnnie’s description of the raid in Chapter 1 and Operation Bughouse in Chapter 10 have already demonstrated that the infantryman’s life is anything but “soft.” Nevertheless, Johnnie and his mates work very hard to prepare themselves for the hard work of making war personal.
Themes
In trying to maintain the Lieutenant’s organization of the platoon, Jelly makes Johnnie assistant section leader. But because he’s so young, the three squad leaders who report to him actually outrank him. He needs to establish his authority, especially with Ace. Johnnie finds Ace in his bunk and offers him the assistant section leader position. Ace states his preference for staying with his squad. Accepting his word as final, Johnnie invites him to “clean” the bathroom. Their fight lasts a long time because they’re both well trained, and they’re trying to avoid inflicting injuries that would keep them from combat. Although Ace beats Johnnie, he lets Johnnie land the last hit.
Johnnie’s promotion has something to do with maintaining the organization of the Roughnecks, but it also speaks to his character. Jelly, like Mr. Dubois before him, sees Johnnie’s potential even when Johnnie doesn’t see it himself. He proves that he’s the right man for the job by immediately ensuring that his authority will be respected by all the men in the section. Given the premise that violence is the controlling power of history, it’s not surprising that Johnnie offers to fight Ace, and even insists on it. He feels that he must earn his position by asserting his dominance physically. Although Ace wins the fistfight by knocking Johnnie out, he signals his willingness to follow Johnnie’s orders by allowing him to land the final blow of the fight. Johnnie may have lost, but he has won Ace’s respect and loyalty.
Themes
The soldiers don’t know much about how the war is going, but this is a period in which they’re losing despite defending Terra effectively. The soldiers don’t know about the Federation’s efforts to turn the Skinnies against the Bugs—the only hint is the command to destroy property but spare Skinny lives on drops. The soldiers don’t have much information because a captured trooper can’t spill what he doesn’t know.
With hindsight, Johnnie understands how precarious the Federation’s position was at this time in the war. But it didn’t matter if the humans were winning or losing. His job is the same in either case: to follow his orders, to create chaos and mayhem on his drops, and to come back alive to fight another day. He’s beginning to truly understand the distinction Zim explained in Chapter 5 between decision-making (government) and enforcement (troopers). The relationship between the government and the military is one of mutual dependence and trust, like the relationship of the men in the platoon.
Themes
The Bugs lay eggs, which they can hold on to until they need to replace warriors. And because they’re controlled by a hive mind, they don’t need months of training to become effective soldiers, unlike the humans. Every time the M.I. loses a soldier—even if they killed a thousand Bugs at the same time—it’s a net victory for the bugs, because total communism, when practiced by a species evolutionarily adapted to it, is incredibly effective.
One of the humans’ disadvantages is their individualized social organization, which makes rebuilding their forces time- and labor-intensive. In contrast, the Arachnids need less time to prepare their warriors to carry out the commands of the hive mind. The direct connection of the Bugs’ organization to communism here points to the Cold War context in which the book was written, and suggests that one way to interpret the war between the Federation and the Bugs is as commentary on the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Themes
Get the entire Starship Troopers LitChart as a printable PDF.
Nevertheless, the Terran Federation learns how to hurt Bugs: to distinguish workers from warriors (the fastest way is to see who’s shooting); and to go after the underground lairs where the brains hide instead of wasting ammo on warriors. For Johnnie and the Roughnecks, each mission is just another drill, to be completed according to their orders.
The soldiers may not be winning the war, but they are still contributing to the defense of their species. And anyway, they are trained professionals who will follow orders no matter what.
Themes
Eventually, the Roger Young must return to Sanctuary for more capsules. Jelly has been promoted to Lieutenant, and the Roughnecks know they should rename themselves for their new leader. When Johnnie and Johnson tell him that the men have landed on “Jelly’s Jaguars,” he quickly vetoes the switch.
Jelly’s refusal to rename the platoon demonstrates some of the qualities that separate the humans from the Bugs: retaining the Roughneck designation shows humans’ ability to act counter to the norm, and it demonstrates the platoon’s continued devotion to Rasczak as an individual even after his death.
Themes
Sanctuary, a well-hidden Federation planet, is like a less advanced Earth. But it has a much lower level of natural radiation, so genetic mutations occur infrequently. Evolution happens very slowly in its flora and fauna. Currently, this means that Terran crops easily outcompete native species, but it also means that the descendants of Sanctuary’s human colonists won’t evolve as quickly as humans elsewhere, unless they intentionally dose themselves with radiation. A research scientist tells Johnnie he doesn’t think that they will be willing to accept short-term health risks for the benefit of future generations. Johnnie doesn’t know what he would do if given that choice. But he does know that Sanctuary is a delightful place that will be important to either the humans or the Bugs for a long time.
Johnnie’s description of Sanctuary expands on the importance of discomfort and danger as evolutionary forces. The native species on Sanctuary don’t evolve fast enough to compete with imported plants and animals; because evolution is a struggle for dominance, the most adaptable and advanced groups will win. Weighing the personal and individual costs of dangerous radiation exposure (which can cause suffering and death for some) against the benefits of introducing positive mutations that will benefit the group parallels the idea developed throughout the book that suffering is a necessary agent of progress. Here, the idea of painful discipline to develop an individual character is expanded to apply to a whole group or society that will ultimately have to choose whether to accept short-term pain for long-term gain.
Themes
Sanctuary is delightful because the civilian colonists respect and support the military, and because there are a lot of females there. There are many businesses to entertain the soldiers—some for free, and others designed to relieve the soldiers of their money. Johnnie considers being discharged to Sanctuary when his term is up. Military leadership even turns a blind eye to physical fights, so when some Roughnecks tangle with a group of Navy men, the only consequence is paying for the broken furniture.
The civilians on Sanctuary depend utterly on the military for safety and patronage since the planet serves primarily as a base of military operations. They thus fulfill Johnnie’s ideal for the role of civilians: supporting the military materially (providing food and entertainment) and socially (accepting their faults, such as bar fights, without complaint).
Themes
Johnnie and Ace stay in the free barracks. Johnnie has a date with one of Carl’s colleagues, who drinks expensive champagne while Johnnie has pineapple juice. The next morning, Ace takes Johnnie to a local cantina and encourages him to go career and to put in for Officer Candidate School. Johnnie has the education to pass the exams and the I.Q. to make a good officer. And anyway, given the state of the war, Johnnie will end up serving more than two years anyway.
Following their earlier struggle for dominance, Ace and Johnnie have become close friends. Ace is just the latest in a line of military men (following Mr. Dubois, Zim, and Jelly) who recognize Johnnie’s innate excellence and encourage it. Johnnie’s obsession with fresh pineapple juice offers a very small clue to his cultural roots, and although they won’t be revealed until the end of the book, it’s another nod towards a humanity that has moved beyond racial, national, and cultural divisions.
Themes
When Ace gets into a card game, Johnnie goes for a walk to think about his advice. He thought that he had volunteered to earn citizenship. Active-duty military aren’t allowed to vote, so going career will delay this. But then he thinks that he’d actually volunteered for the pride and status of citizenship, not the right to vote specifically. But he already possesses citizenship, in the truest sense of the word, by virtue of his willingness to sacrifice himself for the Federation.
As he does at so many other points of confusion and difficulty, Johnnie thinks back to Mr. Dubois’s lessons. He discovers that his initial reasons for volunteering no longer matter to him. He no longer feels a need to prove himself or “earn” citizenship because he’s already taken on the role of a citizen in risking his life to protect humanity. His realization recalls the words of Mr. Dubois’s letter in basic training (Chapter 6). In internalizing the discipline and virtue that military training seeks to develop in soldiers, Johnnie has become the epitome of the right kind of soldier and the right kind of future citizen.
Themes
Although Johnnie isn’t sure if he’s willing to sacrifice himself for the whole of society, he would do so for the M.I. because they are his family. So, going career makes sense. But Officer? Al Jenkins used to say it wasn’t worth being an officer—commissioned or otherwise—because the private has the same risks and rights, but less responsibility. But Johnnie knows that he would never refuse a promotion that was offered to him.
Recalling Mr. Dubois’s lesson on the development of moral sense from the individual to ever larger groups (Chapter 8), Johnnie isn’t sure if he fights for the good of everyone. But he does fight for the good of his military “family,” and that’s enough of a reason to ensure that his actions serve the greater good. This also recalls the moment in Chapter 2 when Johnnie gave Mr. Dubois the textbook definition of a soldier. At the time he didn’t truly understand civic virtue, but now it’s come to direct his actions and choices.
Themes
Johnnie’s walk takes him near OCS, where he watches the cadets before walking back to Jelly’s room in the barracks and telling him that he wants to go career. Jelly immediately swears him in and presents him with his papers—they’d been filled in even before Ace had spoken to Johnnie.
Walking by Officer Candidate School without consciously intending to is another way that Johnnie’s internal virtue directs his actions, even when he’s not aware of it. The fact that Jelly has already prepared paperwork for his career commitment merely confirms that Johnnie’s commitment is a natural extension of his character.
Themes
