Starship Troopers

by

Robert A. Heinlein

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Starship Troopers: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Before the Canadian Rockies test, however, the recruits complete a lot of combat training at Camp Currie, with everything from their fists to simulated nuclear weapons. As the ranks thin out, Zim spends less time on formations and more time on personal instruction. Johnnie likes him much better as a personal teacher.
Johnnie’s flashback emphasizes the importance of personal skill. Even with the Terran Federation’s futuristic technology, a soldier’s value lies in his ability to fight with whatever weapons are available to him—even his bare hands. Zim’s devotion to his recruits’ success models the importance the M.I. places on making good soldiers and worthy citizens. 
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Once, Ted Hendrick asks why they spend so much time on hand-to-hand combat, insisting that an unarmed man hasn’t got any chance against one who has dangerous weapons. Zim answers that there are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous men. The whole point of training is to train soldiers who are deadly as long as they’re alive. Hendrick isn’t convinced; he wants to know the point of foot soldiers risking their lives when a “professor type can do so much more just by pushing a button.” If Hendrick doesn’t already understand the importance of being a soldier from his History and Moral Philosophy class, Zim isn’t going to be able to give him a satisfactory answer. Nevertheless, Hendrick is intent on “sweat[ing] out” his term.
Zim’s lecture lays out the militaristic values of the Terran Federation when it emphasizes the value of lethal soldiers and claims that violence is the key to out-competing and dominating other species. Taking on a better-armed opponent can also be a sign of bravery. Hendrick’s inability to understand Zim’s answer—a sign that he hasn’t internalized the lessons of History and Moral Philosophy class—should be a warning sign that he's not cut out for soldiering. His plan to “sweat out” or survive his term further confirms that his heart isn’t in being a soldier.
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Zim asks Hendrick if he’d cut a baby’s head off just to teach it a lesson. Warfare is like that: sometimes it’s necessary to use a smaller amount of force—“controlled and purposeful violence”—to support the government’s decisions. The soldier’s job is to enforce these decisions, not to make them. If this answer can’t satisfy Hendrick, Zim thinks he should resign and go home, because he won’t ever make a successful soldier. Zim commands the recruits to resume their knife throwing practice, and Hendrick misses his next target. 
Zim’s definition of war begins to refine the book’s idea of the importance of violence as a historical and evolutionary force. The point isn’t just brute violence. It’s using violence to achieve specific aims. Zim’s theory of purposeful violence echoes the destruction and chaos of the mission on the Skinnies’ planet in Chapter 1, and looks forward to the mission on Planet P in Chapter 13. Missing the target with his knife parallels the way that Hendrick misses the point of being a solider and foreshadows his short-lived future in the M.I. 
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The recruits train with weapons ranging from sticks and wire to simulated nuclear weapons. They also use obsolete weapons like guns and bayonets. Most of the training is simulated, but their guns have one live round in every 500. This  may be dangerous, but so is life, and it teaches recruits the instinct for finding cover and keeps them continually alert. When their attention slackens, the instructors warn that the incidence of real rounds could be increased if necessary. One recruit is shot—nonfatally. The instructors don’t take cover, but none are wounded or killed.
The recruits’ training stresses the continuity of war over time, and it reinforces the idea expressed earlier by Mr. Dubois that violence is the driving force of history. Using live rounds in practice guns, which Johnnie dismisses by saying that life is dangerous, pokes at the idea of moral decline in the 20th-century context in which the book was written—the danger the recruits readily accept, then, makes them tougher than their historical counterparts.
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On a certain occasion, Johnnie loses his recruit-corporal rank because one of his squad mates does something bad. He complains to Zim that he wasn’t involved, but Zim retorts that Johnnie is responsible for what his men do at all times.
Because Johnnie doesn’t give the full story of his punishment, he implies that the specific circumstances are unimportant. It doesn’t matter what his men did—whether it was serious or trivial—because personal discipline is important in all things. In the next chapter, he’ll describe witnessing what it looks like for Sergeant Zim and Captain Frankel to take this kind of responsibility for one of the recruits’ misdeeds.
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One day, after a training accident injures his shoulder, Johnnie is put on light duty in battalion commander Captain Frankel’s office. He feels sorry for himself due to his sore shoulder and demotion. Suddenly, Sergeant Zim enters the office looking grim and bruised. With him are two armed recruits and Ted Hendrick, who has a split lip and disheveled uniform. Surprised, Captain Frankel asks what’s going on. Zim reports two disciplinary actions against a recruit: disregard of tactical doctrine and disobedience of orders. Because the recruit refused immediate administrative discipline and demanded a hearing, Zim must bring the issue to the Captain’s attention.
Johnnie displays his lingering immaturity through self-pity. He’s not yet willing to take full responsibility for himself and his men, and he’s not yet able to accept the repercussions of his voluntary service, in which injury is an ever-present possibility. The two charges are important: Hendrick is in trouble for what he did (disregard of doctrine) and how he did it (disobedience of orders). Together, his actions demonstrate a lack of the personal discipline befitting a soldier, and his demand to speak to Frankel adds to this. His physical actions reflect the lack of conviction he demonstrated at the beginning of the chapter.
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On the first disciplinary count, Hendrick disregarded a “freeze” order, in which the recruits were expected to instantly freeze and remain completely still until released. The M.I. tells stories of men who’d died in freezes without moving or making a sound. On the second count, he had refused orders to return to the freeze. Captain Frankel deprives him of his free time, orders extra duty, and limits his meals to bread and water, noting that this punishment is as severe as he is allowed to make it without having a court-martial. He tries to dismiss Hendrick, who refuses and complains that he hasn’t been able to tell his side of the story.
Military discipline requires the recruits to follow doctrine immediately and fully, even when it is uncomfortable, dangerous, or difficult. The stories of men dying in freezes, which are likely tall tales, reinforce the importance of total obedience. Frankel’s attempt to quickly punish and dismiss Hendrick hints that he should be in a lot more trouble, but Hendrick is unable to see or understand how hard the Captain is working to protect him, despite his disobedience. In asking to tell his side, he demands an acknowledgement of his individual rights.
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Hendrick claims he’d been unable to hold the freeze because he’d been on a stinging anthill. Captain Frankel, disgusted, asks if he was willing to get himself or his teammates killed over a few ants. He tells Hendrick that even if they’d been rattlesnakes, he would have been expected and required to freeze. In his own defense, Hendrick complains that Zim laid hands on him, and rants about the corporal punishment handed out by the instructors.
Hendrick thinks that his discomfort is enough of a mitigating circumstance to excuse him from following orders, demonstrating his fundamental misunderstanding of military life. Not only is he unable to follow orders, but because movement in a freeze could draw enemy attention, he’s  also demonstrated that he sees his individual needs as more important than those of the whole group of soldiers. Hendrick rejects the right of the instructors to practice corporal (physical) punishment, striking at a key pillar of Federation society.
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Captain Frankel explains that Hendrick’s superiors have every right to strike him in the line of duty; sometimes superior officers are even required to kill the men under their command—for example, if they refuse to fight because of fear. He explains that the batons show who has authority and the instructors use them to strike recruits—because corporal punishment is much more effective than words. Moreover, the “impersonal rod of authority” preserves the dignity of the recruit, although kicking him would be just as legal. Captain Frankel explains all of this to Hendrick, who’d been a “bad boy,” so he’d understand why he was being punished. To help his effort to set Hendrick straight, Frankel asks why he thought he’d been mistreated.
Frankel’s lecture lays out the book’s case for corporal punishment, which will be explored in later chapters. Importantly, it is efficient and impersonal, a tool to help external rules become internal self-discipline. Frankel dismisses Hendrick’s actions as those of a spoiled child because he doesn’t have the dignity to accept his punishment without external complaint. He doesn’t even seem to understand what he signed up for when he volunteered, indicating both immaturity and a lack of the civic virtue that is so important to the book’s conception of military service. 
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Quotes
Hendrick explains that he’d tried to move just a few feet off the anthill, but that Zim knocked him to the ground and yelled at him. Hendrick jumped up and “popped [Zim] one.” Captain Frankel, expressing disbelief that Hendrick would hit his company commander, orders him to be silent. Hendrick mutters that he wants to resign while Frankel quickly confirms that the “pertinent articles” have been published to Zim’s company. Johnnie notices Zim’s now obvious bruise and wonders why the commander hasn’t.
Hendrick’s inability to understand why a small move during a practice drill should matter so much further drives home the idea that he doesn’t have the personal discipline required to make a good soldier. Hitting Zim shows a lack of self-control, even after Zim emphasized that war is controlled violence. Hendrick hasn’t  been paying attention to what service entails, either in the words of the Oath or the ideas of his instructors. The attempts of Frankel and Zim to avoid discussing Hendrick’s worst crime (hitting Zim) demonstrate the self-discipline that Hendrick lacks and provide an example of how far the M.I. will go to take care of its soldiers.
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Each week on Sunday, the instructors read the Laws and Regulations of the Military Forces to the recruits. They only really paid attention to the “thirty-one ways to crash land,” or the capital offenses. Johnnie suddenly remembers that these include striking a superior officer. He is stunned to realize that Hendrick might hang for his crime, especially as the recruits regularly try to hit Zim during hand-to-hand combat exercises.
Like “buying a farm,” “crash landing” is a euphemism for a very serious situation: execution. If Johnnie is correct in his assessment that the recruits pay attention to the list of capital offenses, it’s surprising that Hendrick admitted to striking Zim. Hendrick and Johnnie are both “sweating out” a term to gain citizenship, but there’s a clear distinction between them: Johnnie’s paying attention and keeping his complaints to himself. Hendrick’s insubordination indicates a total lack of self-control and  provides a contrast to Johnnie’s own growing sense of virtue.
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Frankel orders Johnnie to call regimental headquarters, and he requests an officer to judge a court-martial. He then gathers the witnesses and asks Hendrick if he wants witnesses for his defense. Hendrick repeats his request to resign.
Once Hendrick has openly admitted to his actions, Frankel must use the “impartial rod” of military discipline to punish him according to the law. Hendrick—still demonstrating his lack of discipline—tries to avoid punishment by resigning from the service.
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Lieutenant Spieksma arrives from regimental HQ and convenes a court-martial, charging Hendrick with striking his superior officer while the Federation was in a state of emergency. Johnnie is appointed officer of the court, and within twenty minutes, the two recruits and their company commander, Corporal Mahmud, have all testified. Zim isn’t called. Hendrick waives his right to cross-examine the witnesses and asks for a lawyer. However, legal counsel isn’t permitted for field court-martials. Hendrick also waives his right to testify. Spieksma asks him if he was aware of the regulations before his offense. Hendrick acknowledges that he was. He has no answer when asked if he can add anything to mitigate or explain his actions. But when Spieksma asks if he feels anything about the trial was unfair, Hendrick complains it was all unfair, because Zim hit him first. 
The fact that the Terran Federation is in a state of emergency doesn’t get much attention at this point, but it’s a hint of the impending Bug War. Hendrick’s request for a lawyer arises from his fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the military in his society: the M.I. is its own world, and civilian considerations like lawyers and the right to self-defense don’t apply. Hendrick complains that the trial—like Zim’s treatment of him—is unfair, because he didn’t get the result he wanted, even though his superior officers have been intent on reducing his punishment as much as possible. His focus on “fairness” also previews complaints Mr. Dubois will have about the entitlement of the citizens in 20th-century democracies in Chapter 8. 
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Lieutenant Spieksma finds Hendrick guilty as charged and sentences him to ten lashes and a Bad Conduct Discharge. Hendrick restates his wish to resign, but Spieksma refuses to allow it. He adds that Hendrick is getting off easy because a field court-martial can assign no greater punishment than lashes. If Captain Frankel had required a general court-martial, the punishment would have been death by hanging.
Hendrick demonstrates his inability to accept the consequences of his actions all the way up to the end of his court-martial when he is still trying to resign rather than face the legal punishment. His Bad Conduct Discharge means that he will never be able to attain full citizenship, and his behavior suggests he wouldn’t have been a good citizen. And Spieksma makes sure to tell him that even this punishment is light—if Frankel had wanted to, he could have convened a proper court-martial which likely would have sentenced Hendrick to death. Hendrick doesn’t see or appreciate the care with which Spieksma, Frankel, and Zim have approached the situation.
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Quotes
At afternoon sick call Johnnie is cleared for full duty. He gets back to his company just in time to muster (in his slightly messy uniform) for parade and witness the publication of Hendrick’s punishment. Johnnie hasn’t seen a flogging before, even though corporal punishment was carried out in public back home. Hendrick is chained to a post, his shirt is removed, and a corporal-instructor from another battalion strikes him with the whip. Hendrick is quiet until the third strike, when he starts to sob. Johnnie passes out, as do a few dozen other recruits.
After the court-martial, life quickly falls back into its normal patterns, such as Zim dinging Johnnie for the minor spots on his clothing. Military discipline and order quickly smooth over the drama Hendrick caused. Although Johnnie finds the whipping distressing, it’s clear that corporal punishment of this kind is normal in Federation society—he could have snuck away to watch public floggings at the local courthouse when he was a child.
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