Starship Troopers

by

Robert A. Heinlein

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Captain Frankel Character Analysis

Captain Frankel commands the battalion at Camp Currie, where he once did his own basic training under instructor Sergeant Zim. He’s good at hand-to-hand combat and performs his actions with style. Yet he’s overworked with administrative tasks, and he feels a deep sense of personal responsibility for the recruits. He goes out of his way to avoid having to hold a court-martial for Ted Hendrick, and when Hendrick forces his hand, he still works to keep the punishment to a minimum. Later, he expresses relief when Johnnie earns administrative punishment but accepts it without complaint.

Captain Frankel Quotes in Starship Troopers

The Starship Troopers quotes below are all either spoken by Captain Frankel or refer to Captain Frankel. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Militarism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 5 Quotes

Now about these batons—They have two uses. First, they mark the men in authority. Second, we expect them to be used on you, to touch you up and keep you on the bounce. You can’t possibly be hurt by one, not the way they are used; at most they sting a little. But they save thousands of words. Say you don’t turn out on the bounce at reveille. No doubt the duty corporal could wheedle you, say ‘pretty please with sugar on it,’ inquire if you’d like breakfast in bed this morning—if we could spare one career corporal just to nursemaid you. We can’t, so he gives your bedroll a whack and trots on down the line, applying the spur where needed. Of course he could simply kick you, which would be just as legal and nearly as effective. But the general in charge of training and discipline thinks that it is more dignified, both for the duty corporal and for you, to snap a late sleeper out of his fog with the impersonal rod of authority. And so do I. Not that it matters what you or I think about it; this is the way we do it.

Related Characters: Captain Frankel (speaker), Sergeant Zim (The Sergeant), Ted Hendrick
Page Number: 87-88
Explanation and Analysis:

The Court does not permit you to resign. The Court wishes to add that your punishment is light simply because this Court possesses no jurisdiction to assign greater punishment. The authority which remanded you specified a field court-martial—why it so chose, this Court will not speculate. But had you been remanded for general court-martial, it seems certain that the evidence before this court would have caused a general court to sentence you to hang by the neck until dead. You are very lucky—and the remanding authority has been most merciful.

Related Characters: Lieutenant Spieksma (speaker), Ted Hendrick, Captain Frankel
Page Number: 95
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6  Quotes

But it appeared that Captain Frankel worked so hard that he skipped meals, was kept so busy with something or other that he complained of lack of exercise and would waste his own free time just to work up a sweat.

As for worries, he had honestly seemed to be even more upset at what had happened to Hendrick than Zim had been. And yet he hadn’t even known Hendrick by sight; he had been forced to ask his name.

I had an unsettling feeling that I had been completely mistaken as to the very nature of the world I was in, as if every part of it was something wildly different from what it appeared to be—like discovering that your own mother isn’t anyone you’ve ever seen before, but a stranger in a rubber mask.

But I was sure of one thing: I didn’t even want to find out what the M.I. really was. If it was so tough that even the gods-that-be—sergeants and officers—were made unhappy by it, it was certainly too tough for Johnnie!

Related Characters: Johnnie Rico (speaker), Sergeant Zim (The Sergeant), Ted Hendrick, Captain Frankel
Page Number: 108-109
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

Dillinger belonged to us, he was still on our rolls. Even though we didn’t want him, even though we should never have had him, even though we would have been happy to disclaim him, he was a member of our regiment. We couldn’t brush him off and let a sheriff a thousand miles away handle it. If it has to be done, a man—a real man—shoots his dog himself; he doesn’t hire a proxy who may bungle it.

The regimental records said that Dillinger was ours, so taking care of him was our duty.

Related Characters: Johnnie Rico (speaker), Sergeant Zim (The Sergeant), Ace, Ted Hendrick, Captain Frankel, Breckenridge, N. L. Dillinger , Dizzy Flores
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis:
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Starship Troopers PDF

Captain Frankel Quotes in Starship Troopers

The Starship Troopers quotes below are all either spoken by Captain Frankel or refer to Captain Frankel. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Militarism Theme Icon
).
Chapter 5 Quotes

Now about these batons—They have two uses. First, they mark the men in authority. Second, we expect them to be used on you, to touch you up and keep you on the bounce. You can’t possibly be hurt by one, not the way they are used; at most they sting a little. But they save thousands of words. Say you don’t turn out on the bounce at reveille. No doubt the duty corporal could wheedle you, say ‘pretty please with sugar on it,’ inquire if you’d like breakfast in bed this morning—if we could spare one career corporal just to nursemaid you. We can’t, so he gives your bedroll a whack and trots on down the line, applying the spur where needed. Of course he could simply kick you, which would be just as legal and nearly as effective. But the general in charge of training and discipline thinks that it is more dignified, both for the duty corporal and for you, to snap a late sleeper out of his fog with the impersonal rod of authority. And so do I. Not that it matters what you or I think about it; this is the way we do it.

Related Characters: Captain Frankel (speaker), Sergeant Zim (The Sergeant), Ted Hendrick
Page Number: 87-88
Explanation and Analysis:

The Court does not permit you to resign. The Court wishes to add that your punishment is light simply because this Court possesses no jurisdiction to assign greater punishment. The authority which remanded you specified a field court-martial—why it so chose, this Court will not speculate. But had you been remanded for general court-martial, it seems certain that the evidence before this court would have caused a general court to sentence you to hang by the neck until dead. You are very lucky—and the remanding authority has been most merciful.

Related Characters: Lieutenant Spieksma (speaker), Ted Hendrick, Captain Frankel
Page Number: 95
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6  Quotes

But it appeared that Captain Frankel worked so hard that he skipped meals, was kept so busy with something or other that he complained of lack of exercise and would waste his own free time just to work up a sweat.

As for worries, he had honestly seemed to be even more upset at what had happened to Hendrick than Zim had been. And yet he hadn’t even known Hendrick by sight; he had been forced to ask his name.

I had an unsettling feeling that I had been completely mistaken as to the very nature of the world I was in, as if every part of it was something wildly different from what it appeared to be—like discovering that your own mother isn’t anyone you’ve ever seen before, but a stranger in a rubber mask.

But I was sure of one thing: I didn’t even want to find out what the M.I. really was. If it was so tough that even the gods-that-be—sergeants and officers—were made unhappy by it, it was certainly too tough for Johnnie!

Related Characters: Johnnie Rico (speaker), Sergeant Zim (The Sergeant), Ted Hendrick, Captain Frankel
Page Number: 108-109
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

Dillinger belonged to us, he was still on our rolls. Even though we didn’t want him, even though we should never have had him, even though we would have been happy to disclaim him, he was a member of our regiment. We couldn’t brush him off and let a sheriff a thousand miles away handle it. If it has to be done, a man—a real man—shoots his dog himself; he doesn’t hire a proxy who may bungle it.

The regimental records said that Dillinger was ours, so taking care of him was our duty.

Related Characters: Johnnie Rico (speaker), Sergeant Zim (The Sergeant), Ace, Ted Hendrick, Captain Frankel, Breckenridge, N. L. Dillinger , Dizzy Flores
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis: