Over the perspective of both officers and enlisted men [in The Naked and the Dead] prevails the narrative voice of Mailer, who, Olympian-like, remains a detached, omniscient observer. He conveys the tribulations of war with almost scathing objectivity. (p. 18)

Clearly, Mailer's perspective in this novel seems noninnovational for it is derived from naturalism, the prevailing point of view of the American masters of the 1930s—Steinbeck, Dos Passos, Farrell, and Hemingway—who inspired him. Naturalism's most frequent metaphor, the lawless jungle, is the literal setting of The Naked and the Dead. (p. 19)

What makes this novel so disturbing is not the actual horror of war, but Mailer's unrelenting vision of the void—of the lack of love, justice, and mercy. Nothing human is sacred, and the only constant is change. The unpredictable oscillations of nature and man's emotions charge every scene. To be human is to be a...