One of the reasons I peg Gunnery Sergeant Hartman as not just being nasty for training on the job but also nasty and cruel off the job is his detesting all things feminine and civilian as though they were Communist i.e. the enemy. He calls traits like conscience, mercy and compassion - whether by stated rhetoric or implication - filth that contaminate and render unclean what he believes ALL humans but mainly men ought to be. That ideal being ruthless, heartless killers. This attitude that gets him killed by Leonard Lawrence (Private "Gomer Pyle") is foreshadowed by his adoration and praise of Lee Harvey Oswald for killing President Kennedy and the University of Texas at Austin shooter Charles Whitman who murdered sixteen people - one of the first ever school shooters. These ought to be clear markers that Hartman is not to be seen as a hero or even nominally an antihero by any stretch of the imagination.
Peach Lover 94
It's a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done. A far better resting place that I go to, than I've ever known.
One of the reasons I peg Gunnery Sergeant Hartman as not just being nasty for training on the job but also nasty and cruel off the job is his detesting all things feminine and civilian as though they were Communist i.e. the enemy. He calls traits like conscience, mercy and compassion - whether by stated rhetoric or implication - filth that contaminate and render unclean what he believes ALL humans but mainly men ought to be. That ideal being ruthless, heartless killers. This attitude that gets him killed by Leonard Lawrence (Private "Gomer Pyle") is foreshadowed by his adoration and praise of Lee Harvey Oswald for killing President Kennedy and the University of Texas at Austin shooter Charles Whitman who murdered sixteen people - one of the first ever school shooters. These ought to be clear markers that Hartman is not to be seen as a hero or even nominally an antihero by any stretch of the imagination.
Peach Lover 94 It's a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done. A far better resting place that I go to, than I've ever known.