American War by Omar El Akkad Analytical Summary

The novel “American War” by Omar El Akkad creates a powerful sense of reality for readers. His creation of the characters in this novel displays not only the ability to construct an influential and captivating view of the possible future ahead of us, a damaged America through irreversible climate change and political warfare. El Akkad uses vivid imagery to illustrate the cruelty of war and how it destroys lives through Sara T Chestnut.  

Sarat Chestnut is contrary to what would be perceived as a damaged or tragic character. She had dealt with a great deal of loss throughout her life, which would cause her an immense amount of pain and grief. She is not a hero in this story, but she is not a villain either. She had been deeply ruined by the war and became broken and consumed by revenge.  Her mother and twin sister were killed by the bombing of the Northern Army, and her dad had passed away earlier in her life. She dealt with a troubling amount of suffering for one person, which transformed into an eternal flame of hatred burning inside her. “War destroys them in the same way, making them the same timid, angry, and vengeful. It’s the same for you” (El Akkad, 237).  The author is describing how embedded the rage is, no matter what side you are fighting for war strips your humanity away from you more and more until there is nothing left. She had started living in her family home where her parents tried their best to shield their kids of the horrors of what has consumed America and turned it into a warzone. “When I was young, I lived with my parents and my brother and my sister in a small house by the Mississippi sea. I was happy then. (El Akkad, 379).

“This isn’t a story about war. It’s about ruin” (El Akkad, 3). The narrator made a clear distinction between the two words war and ruin. It is implied that the context behind the word ‘war’ does not have the same effect anymore, it has been commonly being used. By using the word ‘ruin’ it is suggesting more about the rippling effects that were left in the war’s wake and the toll that it had on the characters’ lives. Their sense of security and safety had changed so abruptly that the sound of bombs falling on houses other than their own made them feel safe. “I don’t expect you to understand it. Your side fought the war, but the war never happened to you (El Akkad, 69). This perspective displays what suffering has been endured directly by the enemy. Sarat Chestnut being a terrorist is not from her being a truly evil person, but instead, it was in response to the violence and inequality that she has felt and been traumatized with. 

In chapter 7 Sarat asks Gaines why he is fighting for the south and he said that the specific reason did not matter to him as much as the pride and the deep-rooted emotional hatred they had for the Northerners. The Northerners were fighting because of freedom and democracy, but that could change the day after that. “You pick up a gun and fight for something, you best never change your mind” (El Akkad, 142.) Rather than to make the cause of the war race, El Akkad chose to create the issue based on climate change. It could have dismissed the cause for the Southerners and tagged them as unreasonable and flawed. This way their hatred and ideology are displayed in a way that gives the readers a sense of why the terrorists’ resentment is way bigger in scale than a political issue can capture.

“They’re not young like you; most of them are old enough to remember when it wasn’t like this, when there was peace. And if you’d known that, you’d want it back too” (El Akkad, 276). 

Sarat has grown up knowing all her life that the North was her enemy. It is impossible for her to even make her think that they are her friends. It displays that people that have only known war for their whole life to even have a cognitive understanding of what peace is. 

Sarat never really believed in the Southern cause which was the fossil fuels, it only gave her a reason or symbol for her a justification for violence and killing. The Northerners took everything from her and when the south had abandoned that cause, “All that was gone now, and looking at the roads you’d think there never lived a single Southerner who’d ever wanted anything to do with the old fuel that started the war”, she had realized that all the pain and loss she suffered from was essentially for nothing (El Akkad, 278). At the end of the novel, Sarat does not believe in the cause but ends up releasing the virus attack on everyone at Columbus, which reflected pure rage for all the people to cause her to lose everything. She did not do it to support any side but her own and knowing that it would spread to the side she fought for. She did it purely to inflict as much death and destruction possible out of intense spite and anger. 

The novel gives not only a vivid modern-day civil war scenario but the panic that comes when it is realized that any day that could happen. The war takes place in the future, but the author gives the reader a realistic sense of feeling of all the cruelty. El Akkad captures America perfectly on the edge of complete and utter destruction and the life of a citizen attempting to do all they can just to survive. The decline of the resources, suffering environment, and corrupt government is no doubt the source of the war. El Akkad makes the readers experience the tragedy of war and the reality of it all through Sarat Chestnut. 

References

El Akkad, Omar. American War. First Vintage Books, 2017.