The Barracks Thief Literary Elements

Historical fiction, war

Fort Bragg, NC, in the 1970s, during the Vietnam War

The story alternates between a first-person point of view from the perspective of Philip, the novel's main character, and a third-person point of view following various other characters, such as his father, Guy Bishop, or his fellow paratrooper Lewis.

Straightforward, blunt, detached

Protagonist: Philip, an emotionally detached paratrooper in the army barracks during the Vietnam War. Antagonist: the sad reality of war and the struggle to hold on to meaning in a tragedy-filled world.

To cope with his father's abandonment, Philip joins the U.S. Army, where he trains to be a paratrooper in Vietnam. Most of the story takes place in the barracks, where Philip works to find his place, and the "barracks thief" steals things from various people in the area.

The barracks thief is revealed to be Lewis, who is dishonorably discharged. Several years later, Philip looks back on all these events, having married and settled down.

The swelling of Lewis's hand foreshadows the growth of his mental anguish and his eventual breakdown.

"Still, he must remember more often than he'd like to that he was thrown out of the Army for being a thief." (Chapter 7)

Taking place during the Vietnam War, this novel contains many allusions to events, countries, and figures relevant to that period, as well as several brands of cars popular in the 1970s.

When Philip visits his father to confront him about his traumatic visit to their house, his father attempts to give him a folding bicycle as a gift, saying that Philip will have the ability to travel away at any given moment. This bicycle is a physical representation of Guy's own life; he is always ready to leave what he has in search of something new, giving in to his inner restlessness, so he essentially lives with a folding bicycle in his heart. When demonstrating the bike to his son, he ends up tangled on the floor, a symbolic image of the detrimental effects of such a life.

Hubbard is a man who dislikes everything about the army, and yet he is still paradoxically stuck in the place where he's expected to kill people. He actually escapes this seemingly inescapable paradox by deserting before he's sent to Vietnam.

The scene where Guy Bishop falls off the folding bicycle he bought for Philip parallels the wreck he has made of his life as a result of his desire to constantly be mobile and ready to leave in search of a better situation.

"The Marines tolerated Philip because he had a car, an old Pontiac he'd bought for fifty dollars at a police auction." (Chapter 1)

"The spokes caught the light as they went around and around." (Chapter 1)