Discrimination

Discrimination is one of the most prominent themes throughout the novel and ties in with some of the ideas of WWII. In WWII, as is described in several places in the book, the German government and many of the German people believed themselves to be of a superior race, that of the Aryan nation. They believed blacks and Jews and others to be inferior to themselves and sought to eradicate them from the earth. As a result, hundreds of thousands were killed.

Many in the novel who served in the U.S. military note a similar discrimination, although not as obvious. Many blacks throughout the novel discuss their experiences with an extremely racist world. The military had segregated barracks, where the black camps were often at the back of the area, with little light or access. They did not have the same entertainments as the whites, and had...