Buckeye

Buckeye features American soldiers in three wars: World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War. It depicts the difficulties that soldiers endured while also painting a portrait of life on the home front, showing the impact of war on soldiers’ families, their communities, and society writ large.

Soldiers in both World Wars experience trauma in this novel and return home bearing not only physical but also emotional scars. Everett’s drinking, hoarding, and difficulty re-entering society are evidence of PTSD. Felix, too, returns from war a changed man, and his trauma is partially rooted in his horrific experiences after his ship was torpedoed but also in Augie’s death. The novel highlights how, in each case, there is little psychiatric or societal help available: Men in Everett’s generation are provided with no assistance, and Felix’s psychiatric care comes with social stigma. However, with its depiction of Skip’s reaction to war, the novel emphasizes that in the next generation, awareness will grow about the complex trauma of war: In a letter home, he notes how little men in previous generations said about their experiences and wonders how their lives might have improved if they did: He sees little utility in being one of the “guys who won’t talk about it” (229), and he wonders if US foreign policy would have been different if there were a better understanding of wartime trauma.