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
In a flashback, Johnnie recalls the recruits’ move to Camp Sergeant Spooky Smith in the Canadian Rockies for their next phase of training. The Third Regiment has shrunk from 1,000 recruits to fewer than 400. Smaller ranks mean more personal attention from the instructors. Now Johnnie feels that Zim and Captain Frankel are trying to turn them into soldiers instead of chasing them away from service. Johnnie can’t decide who is the better soldier of the two: Zim is precise and stylish, but Frankel is daring and enthusiastic.
Of the self-selected class of volunteers, less than half have made it this far in training, so if military service truly proves one’s capacity to be a good citizen, then there are astonishingly few people who should be citizens Johnnie draws closer to Zim and Frankel as instructors and as role models for how to be a soldier-citizen. They’re equally competent even though they do things differently, offering a reminder that the strength of the M.I. lies not in cranking out mindlessly identical soldiers but in producing disciplined individuals, a contrast that will become important later in the Bug War.
Themes
Operating the suits in the mountains is more challenging than on the flat prairies, and several recruits die. Johnnie doesn’t understand why they need to learn mountaineering without the suits, but he has learned to shut up and do as he is told by this point.
Johnnie may question why he needs to learn mountaineering skills if he’s going to be in a suit most of the time, but by now he’s internalized enough military discipline to avoid asking questions. And, in his earlier flashback, he revealed that he was indeed given a test of his survival skills at Camp Spooky Smith in which he had to rely on his own wits rather than any technology.
Themes
At Camp Currie, the recruits had “liberty” to leave the base on Sundays, but there was nothing for miles around. At Camp Spooky Smith, they can go into Vancouver. The first time Johnnie sets foot in town, he realizes that he doesn’t fit into complex and untidy civilian life anymore. Vancouver is a lovely city that welcomes soldiers. There is a social center where local hostesses dance with them at weekly events. But Johnnie prefers to gawk at the buildings and pedestrians—especially girls. He’s always liked girls, but hasn’t understood their full delightfulness until Vancouver.
As the recruits become more and more like soldiers—adults, following the lessons of the last chapter—they’re allowed more freedom to make their own choices. Johnnie’s reaction to Vancouver shows the distance between the chaos and complexity of civilian life and the disciplined order of the military. Although he doesn’t say it outright, this implicitly suggests that the military is better suited to running society precisely because it’s neither untidy nor chaotic. Johnnie’s “appreciation” carries a taint of sexism in the way it suggests that women are most important for their value as beautiful objects to men like Johnnie.
Themes
On liberty, Johnnie, Pat Leivy, and Kitten Smith go to Seattle, where Pat had grown up. The girls are just as plentiful in Seattle as Vancouver, but the Army is less present and appreciated there.
Moments of antagonism between the military and civilians have surfaced already (Mr. Rico’s complaints about History and Moral Philosophy class, the doctor labeling soldiers as “ants”), but Johnnie has been insulated from this friction in the separate world of basic training. Now that he’s left the isolated world of Camp Currie, that’s about to change.
Themes
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The trio ends up at a dockside bar for dinner. Johnnie isn’t drinking; Kitten has one beer with his meal, but his temperament isn’t belligerent. Most of the other customers are merchant marine sailors. Merchant marines are particularly opposed to the M.I., in part because their guild tried to get their trade classified as Federal Service unsuccessfully. A foursome of merchant sailors and civilians begins to make remarks aimed at the soldier recruits, who choose not to respond and get up to leave when they realize the whole bar is listening in.
Citizenship is only available to those whom military veterans deem worthy of citizenship, and this doesn’t include other dangerous, hard services like the merchant marines. However, Johnnie describes the actions of the merchant marines and civilians in the bar—loudly insulting the recruits, trying to provoke them, and then dishonorably attacking them from behind—as if they illustrate the lack of discipline and virtue inherent in anyone who isn’t in Federal Service, suggesting that they’re barred because they don’t have the right morals. In contrast, the recruits behave with discipline, refusing to become upset in the face of the foursome’s taunts.
Themes
The four men follow Johnnie, Pat, and Kitten outside and charge at them. Johnnie knocks one out, Kitten “handle[s]” two of them, and Pat throws the last into a lamppost. When the police arrive, they ask if the soldiers want to press charges—attacking a soldier is a serious offence. In part because Zim had told them to keep out of trouble, they decline, claiming that the unconscious men had “stumbled.” Johnnie defended himself on reflex, and his training allowed him to disable armed men quickly and without killing them. This showed him how much he’s changed.
The fistfight in Seattle provides a working example of the thoughtful application of force that Zim and others have cited as the point of the M.I. Without killing the men, Johnnie and his friends apply just the right force at the right points to incapacitate the men and show that they should be left alone. The militaristic orientation of the Federation explains the seriousness of the men’s crime and the deferential attitude of the police officers. In refusing to press charges, Johnnie and the others show that they deserve this deference and won’t use it to take advantage of others.
Themes
At Camp Spooky, the recruits begin to practice drops. These get harder over time: into mountains, ice fields, the Australian outback, and finally the moon. The company continues to shrink as men die or are injured. Some refuse to enter the capsules, and they are discharged. Those who are afraid of dropping are treated kindly. Johnnie never refuses, but he always gets the shakes and is “scared silly” before a drop. But you have to drop to be a cap trooper.
Training seems to be only slightly less lethal than actually being a soldier. Later, Major Reid will expand on this idea, but even at this point, it is yet another example of the importance of pain and suffering as teachers. The M.I.’s apparent callousness towards life contrasts sharply with the compassion the instructors have for those men who can’t bring themselves to drop out of a ship in orbit. Because the M.I. only wants those who are truly cut out for the cap trooper life, they have no reason to force or ridicule those who demonstrate their incapacity.
Themes
There’s a story about a cap trooper who stumbled upon the tomb of Napoleon while sightseeing in Paris. He asked a guard who Napoleon was, and the scandalized guard answered that Napoleon was “the greatest soldier who ever lived.” The cap trooper asked where Napoleon’s drops had been. This story is certainly fictitious because the sign outside the tomb tells you about Napoleon. But all cap troopers feel the same way.
Like Johnnie’s musings about the Greek soldiers at Troy in Chapter 1, the anecdote about the cap trooper in Paris connects these soldiers of the future to the many soldiers of the past. His question about Napoleon’s drops pokes fun at those who haven’t engaged in the M.I.’s particularly dangerous form of warfare, but it also parallels Sergeant Ho’s statement in Chapter 2 that the M.I. is the Army. This tunnel vision relates to the trooper’s responsibility—which is only for a tiny corner of any war—and demonstrates the pride that successful soldiers have in their abilities and training.
Themes
Eventually, Johnnie graduates. Other events from training included fighting a forest fire, going on a real alert that he thought was a drill, and the cook tent blowing away. The weather is important to an infantryman, but only while it’s happening, and it’s boring to recall after the fact. The regiment had started with 2009 recruits but only 187 graduate. Fourteen had died, including the disgraced Dillinger; the rest resigned, transferred, or were discharged. Johnnie is now a “Trained Solider” instead of a “Recruit Soldier.” His graduation day is the biggest day of his life.
Johnnie glosses over many events from basic training because they are less important than his internal shift from immature civilian boy into virtuous adult soldier. This implies that those he’s related are particularly important to this process. The extremely small number of graduates—less than 10% of the volunteers—again raises questions about whether the opportunity for citizenship is as egalitarian as it’s claimed to be.
Themes
