Literature Against the War
This part shifts from the battlefield to the home front. Here, texts capture marches on the Pentagon, antiwar coalitions, and the ways struggles for civil rights and opposition to the war overlapped. We’re invited to think about who is visible in these movements, who is left out, and how protest itself gets narrated.
Norman Mailer, The Armies of the Night (1968)
Mailer’s The Armies of the Night recounts the 1967 March on the Pentagon, blending reportage, autobiography, and even self-mockery. This video explores how Mailer makes himself a character in the story of protest and what that does to our sense of objectivity.
Discussion Questions
- How does Mailer’s decision to put himself at the center of the narrative affect your trust in him as a narrator?
- What does the book suggest about who gets to tell the story of protest and who becomes its “face”?
- How does Mailer’s decision to put himself at the center of the narrative affect your trust in him as a narrator?
- How might Mailer’s approach differ from how everyday participants or marginalized activists might describe the same events?