leveling and unleveling of the ego in Full Metal Jacket
...are Private Joker and Private Leonard Lawrence, nicknamed Gomer Pyle. The first one is a wise guy who thinks that by making jokes can avoid the seriousness and harshness of real life. Pyle, a farm boy who lets the impression of being almost retarded, is different from the others because he isn¡¦t capable to keep up with the basic training. When mistaking left from right, Hartman yells at him: ¡§Then you did that on purpose! You want to be different!¡¨ This is not possible. The marines have to be all the same if the Marine Corps wants to function properly. It¡¦s like a big machinery in which, if a piece doesn¡¦t work, the whole system is affected. Joker is the opposite of Pyle. He is strong and has guts and this is why Sgt Hartman promotes him to squad leader and puts him to take care of Pyle. And we see that he does this with patience and kindness. Then why, in that night in the barracks, when all the marines decide to take revenge on Pyle because they had to pay for his mistakes, Private Joker is the only one that hesitates, but ends up hitting Pyle more than the others? Then he covers his ears not to hear Pyle¡¦s cries. If first, when he hesitates, we might think that he is better than the others, we change our mind eventually and we remain stun at his violence. Is seems that Joker differs from the rest not only on his good side, but also regarding his bad side. I don¡¦t think that he hits him because he is afraid of being different or of being considered a coward by his colleagues. Furthermore, I had the impression that he was mad at himself, for not succeeding in helping Pyle, as he had promised to. After getting the ¡¥right motivation¡¦, Pyle is totally transformed. His ¡¥disgusting grim¡¦ is replaced by a savage look. He discovers a talent for being a good sniper and seems to be the only one who had followed the creed and really bounded with his rifle, ¡¥Charlene¡¦. But by doing so, he lost his humanity and reached a point from where he made his most relevant assertion: ¡§I am¡K in a world¡K of shit.¡¨ Even if he had complete the training and was send to the infantry, thus becoming ¡¥normal¡¦, something went wrong, as Hartman asked before he was shot: ¡§What is your major malfunction?¡¨ He turns from a dumb innocent boy into a cold blooded killer. But he kills only the man that made his life a living hell and forgives Joker for having abandoned him. In the second part, the action takes place in the real war in Vietnam and we find Joker as combat correspondent for Stars and Stripes. The duality of this character, only sketched in the first part, is clearer here. There is a big discrepancy between Joker¡¦s words and his actions. In the first part, when Hartman asks him why he joined the Marine, Joker answers: ¡§Sir, to kill, sir!¡¨ Also, in the second part, he says that ¡§a day without blood is a day without sunshine.¡¨ But a few minutes later, when the camp is attacked, he recognizes: ¡§I hope they are just fucking with us, I ain¡¦t ready for this shit.¡¨ A most relevant clue for the unleveling of Joker¡¦s ego is the fact that he wears a peace symbol and, at the same time, has written on his helmet ¡§BORN TO KILL¡¨. When asked by the colonel to justify himself, he says he thought of the duality of man, ¡§the Jungian thing¡¨. Furthermore, he pretends not to remember where he got the symbol from, as if it had been on his body armor since forever. The colonel doesn¡¦t understand what Joker is talking about. He advises Joker ¡§to get with the program¡¨ if he loves his country. And he should do this, because, as the marine song goes, ¡§I love working for Uncle Sam. Lets me know just who I am.¡¨ And I just can not mention the colonel¡¦s motivation of the war, while standing near the grave with the twenty dead civilians covered with lime: ¡§We are here to help the Vietnamese, because inside every gook there is an American trying to get out.¡¨(is this crazy or no?) Joining up with Cowboy¡¦s platoon, Joker meets Animal, a sort of a Rambo, with big muscles and a machine gun. What stroked me at Animal was the writing on his helmet: ¡§I AM BECOME DEATH.¡¨ I couldn¡¦t help thinking that he is a sort of Pyle, is how Pyle would have become if he had actually entered the war: a true killing machine. Still, he proves to be aware of the meaning of the war, denying that they are dying for freedom and admitting that ¡§this is a slaughter.¡¨ Joker amazes us yet further when he says in front of the camera: ¡§I wanted to see exotic Vietnam, the jewel of Southeast Asia. I wanted to meet interesting and stimulating people of an ancient culture and ... kill them. I wanted to be the first kid on my block to get a confirmed kill.¡¨ But I don¡¦t think that we should take his words for granted. I think he is of a very subtle irony and that he is saying what was expected of him to say in front of the camera. What is funny is the fact that, given at last the chance to express themselves, the marines don¡¦t know what to say. One gives a quotation, most of them don¡¦t have a clear idea about what are they doing there and one or two express their desire to win. Cowboy finally says that he hates Vi...