The Sirens of Titan: Chapter 5: Letter From an Unknown Hero Summary & Analysis

Unk’s formation marches to a barrack, where they stop. There are flags flying above the barracks—including the U.S. flag, the U.S.S.R. flag, and the Japanese flag. They each stand for the countries that the Martian Army will attack when the war between Earth and Mars begins. Standing in front of his barrack, 576, Unk suddenly has a faint memory of what the man at the stake told him. Unk cleans his rifle, a task he finds enjoying. After the execution, Sergeant Brackman said, “You done all right, Unk,” and Unk thanked him. Unk suddenly recalls an image of three beautiful women, one of whom his holding a cigarette. Out loud, he says, “Sell MoonMist.” 

Another “colored” soldier, Boaz, asks what Unk just said. Boaz is only a private, but his uniform is made of a much nicer fabric than the other soldiers, almost silky. His shoes also gleam in the light. Unk says, “Dump MoonMist. Get rid of it.” Boaz laughs and agrees that they will. He asks Unk if he remembers him, and Unk apologetically says he doesn’t. Boaz says that he and Unk are “buddies,” and that the buddy system is part of how the army is organized. Boaz tries to get Unk to say more about the cigarettes, but Unk now says he can’t remember. Suddenly, Unk feels that “he and Boaz [are] the only real people in the stone building,” as if everyone else is a robot.

However, while Boaz is trying to encourage Unk to remember, Unk is suddenly blinded by horrific pain. He falls to the floor and faints. When he awakes, he find Boaz sponging his forehead with a wet cloth. Their other bunkmates look on with stern faces, clearly disapproving of Unk. When Sergeant Brackman comes over, Boaz claims that he is entirely to blame, because he was trying to make Unk remember things from before he went to hospital. Brackman tells Unk that he needs to stop trying to remember, as this was why he was put in hospital in the first place. His attempts to remember thwarted his ability to be a good soldier. 

Sergeant Brackman assigns Boaz to latrine duty for a week, but as soon as he does so, he is hit by a shot of pain from his own antenna. He tells Boaz, “never mind,” then rushes away. Moments later, a captain arrives at the barrack for a “surprise inspection.” Boaz calls everyone to attention. Yet when Boaz himself comes to attention, he does so in a somewhat lazy, “insolent” manner. Boaz looks at the captain, and the captain immediately turns around and leaves. The truth is that Boaz carries a control box in his trousers with which he can make his squadmates do whatever he wants. Unlike them, Boaz does not have an antenna.

Boaz is “one of the real commanders of the Army of Mars.” As far as he knows, there are 800 real commanders in total, all hiding as low-ranking soldiers. The high-ranking officers are actually controlled by the real commanders. Hiding the real commanders both stifles any chance of successful rebellion and means that the real leaders will be safe during the war. Private Stony Stevenson, the man whom Unk strangled to death, was another one of the real commanders. Stevenson had become absorbed in Unk’s struggle to think for himself, to the point that he was actually helping Unk. As punishment, he was fitted with an antenna and forced to actively march to the stake, knowing he would be killed.

Boaz is bored. He tells Unk that Unk has been sent to the hospital seven times for trying too hard to remember. Usually, it only takes a single try for a soldier’s memory to be wiped for good. Back on Earth, Boaz would have been “wretchedly dependent on Unk.” When he was recruited into the Martian Army, he was a 14-year-old orphan. Now, he tells Unk that back on Earth, Unk was “King.” Yet the truth is Boaz doesn’t know much about Unk’s Earth identity. He has only heard rumors, and hasn’t followed them up because a “good” soldier doesn’t seek out information.

Boaz continues to taunt Unk about his status back on Earth, talking about how often Unk frequented “Hollywood night clubs” even though he barely knows what this phrase means. Boaz jokes about the two of them frequenting nightclubs together. However, while he is cheerful on the surface, inside he is terrified about losing his job. Boaz doesn’t know who his superiors are. Everything he does is based on small scraps of conversation he hears while talking with the other real commanders. The suggestion that Stony Stevenson be executed was something that had just come up in conversation. But before long, Stevenson was arrested. 

Like the other real commanders, Boaz is allowed to drink liquor. However, he doesn’t do so, in part because he’s worried about offering some to an enlisted man while drunk. If he did, he would be executed. Sergeant Brackman announces a recreation period during which all the soldiers are supposed to play German batball. However, Unk does not join them. Instead, he sneaks into barrack 12 to look for a letter that Stevenson told him about moments before his death. The Martian Imperial Commandos have set off for the moon, where they plan to start the war. As Unk retrieves the letter, he feels an unexplained sense of excitement.  

The letter is a list of things the writer knows, from the extremely basic (“I am in a place called Mars”) to the more meaningful (“The army plans to kill other things called alive in a place called Earth”). The list is very long, and becomes increasingly specific. It includes a warning not to trust Boaz, and addresses Unk as an “old friend.” The writer tells Unk that the pain caused by his antenna is linked to his ability to gain knowledge, and thus can be seen as a good thing. Reading this, Unk feels a great sadness. He feels that the heroic writer has placed his trust in the wrong person, because Unk himself is not courageous enough to withstand the pain of his antenna.

The letter is filled with all kinds of knowledge: “gossip, history, astronomy, biology, theology, geography, psychology, medicine.” It notes that there is only one city on Mars, which is called Phoebe. It tells Unk about his best friend, Stony Stevenson, a real commander who originally comes from England, laughs all the time, and drinks a quart of whisky per day. Stony had begun to realize that the war against Earth was doomed to fail. He wanted to talk to someone about it, and having gained Unk’s trust, he told Unk everything he knew. They shared a bottle of whisky, and Stony said that Unk was his “best bloody friend.”

The letter continues that one night, when they were drunk, Unk and Stony concluded that the person who was really in charge of the Martian Army was a smiling man who sometimes appeared accompanied by a large dog. He shows up at the real commanders’ meetings, which take place roughly once every 100 days. Although the letter doesn’t mention this, the narrator notes that the man and dog are Winston Niles Rumfoord and Kazak. They appear exactly once every 111 days. In the letter, the writer notes that all the ideas in the Martian Army originate with Rumfoord. The letter tells Unk that he should write down everything he and Stony learn, because that way even if Unk’s memory is wiped, Stony can direct him back to the letter and he will remember it all again.

The letter tells Unk that he is one of the only people on Mars to have a “mate” and a child, and that they inspire him not to give up. Unk’s mate’s name is Bee and their son’s name is Chrono. Bee is a teacher and Chrono is a student in Phoebe. The writer tells Unk that he loves him, and instructs him to rescue his family and escape, taking Stony with him. Unk has finally reached the end of the letter, and turns the page to find the signature. He is overwhelmed by how much better a person the writer is than him. However, Unk is then shocked to find it is his own signature that ends the letter.

Unk realizes that he has been writing the letter to himself in order to preserve his knowledge when his memory gets wiped out. For years, Unk has remained ignorant of the fact that the man he killed at the stake was his best friend, Stony. If he’d known the truth he might have killed himself. Now, Unk returns to his barrack, where he is informed that the war with Earth has finally started. The Martian Army is blasting the following message to Earth: “Brown man, white man, yellow man—surrender or die.”