Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone
"Dog Soldiers" is a novel by Robert Stone that delves into the complexities of human relationships set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the growing drug trade of the 1970s. The story follows John Converse, a once-promising playwright who struggles with writer's block and finds himself working as a journalist for a tabloid in Vietnam. Amidst his attempts to regain his creative spark, he engages in a dangerous heroin smuggling scheme with his former lover, Charmian, while grappling with the realities of war and its impact on both himself and the local population.
As Converse attempts to navigate his troubled marriage with Marge, who is involved in the drug scene herself, the narrative intertwines with the lives of various characters, including the morally ambiguous Hicks, an experienced merchant marine. The plot thickens with themes of betrayal, the consequences of addiction, and the blurred lines between heroism and villainy, culminating in intense confrontations and a philosophical reckoning for several characters.
Through its intricate storytelling, "Dog Soldiers" captures the chaos of the Vietnam War era, exploring not only the external conflicts but also the internal struggles of individuals caught in a web of addiction, ambition, and moral ambiguity. The novel becomes a poignant reflection on the human condition amidst turmoil, ultimately depicting a world where survival often comes at a profound cost.
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Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone
First published: 1974
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Social realism/social criticism
Time of plot: Early 1970’s
Locale: Saigon, Vietnam; Southern California; New Mexico
Principal characters
John Converse , a frustrated playwright who goes to Vietnam for ideas and ends up smuggling heroinRay Hicks , a merchant marine and friend of Converse who agrees to transport the heroin to the United StatesMarge , Converse’s wife and accompliceAntheil , a corrupt federal regulatory agent who uses Converse to smuggle his heroinDanskin , the most vicious of Antheil’s thugsDieter Bechstein , Hicks’s formerrōshi , or master of Zen Buddhism, and the leader of a failed commune
The Story:
John Converse, once an up-and-coming playwright, has not written a successful play in almost a decade. He begrudgingly works as a sensationalist journalist at his father-in-law’s tawdry tabloid, Nightbeat. Converse has convinced himself and his employer that an assignment as a foreign correspondent in Vietnam will benefit both the magazine and his own career as a playwright. He has been in Vietnam for eighteen months, working and looking for inspiration to overcome his writer’s block. He stays in touch with his wife, Marge, though letters. Marge works at an adult theater and is pronarcotics; the two of them have an open marriage and a young daughter named Janey.
Converse’s former lover and present narcotics connection in Saigon is an American named Charmian, a judge’s daughter who left Washington after her involvement in a political scandal. After acquiring uncut heroin from Charmian and briefly discussing a plan to smuggle the drug to the United States, Converse joins Jill and Ian Percy for drinks and dinner.
Ian Percy is an Australian agronomist who has been in Vietnam for fifteen years, working for any world organization that would hire him. Converse and Ian enter into an argument about the life and country of Vietnam. Ian takes offense and reacts strongly to Converse’s flippant attitude and callous remarks about the war and its victims. Ian maintains that Converse has not been in the country long enough to make jokes about it, and Converse rebuts that his presence at a fragmentation bombing in Cambodia gives him license to say whatever he wants. During dinner, a bomb goes off on the street, shaking the restaurant and sending people outside to survey the damage, count the death toll, and watch the police quickly secure the area with barbed wire.
Converse meets an old acquaintance named Ray Hicks on the American base of My Lat, where they discuss the details of transporting the drugs to the United States. Hicks, a merchant marine on his third tour of duty, is a follower of the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as of Zen Buddhism and the code of the feudal Japanese samurai. A volatile yet highly resourceful man, Hicks delivers the heroin to Converse’s house in Berkeley, California, but notices that he is being followed. Soon after he arrives, two men claiming to be special investigators break into the house to seize the drugs.
The men work for Antheil, a corrupt federal agent. Hicks finds out from the men that the heroin deal was arranged by Antheil’s connection in Saigon. Following a violent struggle, Hicks contains the men long enough for him, Marge, and Janey to escape. Janey is taken to safety after Hicks explains to Marge that they are in danger and must go into hiding. Hicks drives them deep into the mountains, where he has a vehicle and a hidden arsenal ready. They drive to San Francisco to see Eddie Peace, a sleazy man with many shady connections, who Hicks hopes will be able find a buyer for the heroin.
While Hicks and Marge (who is already a prescription pill addict) are sampling the heroin and waiting to hear from Eddie, Converse arrives home to find his apartment a mess and his wife and daughter gone. Converse is investigating the fate of his family when Danskin and his men abduct him. Attempting to obtain information regarding the whereabouts of their heroin, they drug Converse, beat him, and burn him on a hot stove; they then leave. In the middle of a conversation with the women who temporarily watched after Janey, Converse flashes back to the fragmentation bombing in Cambodia. He recalls an epiphany in which he realized that the physical world is a deathtrap—appropriately so, because human arrogance warrants annihilation.
Hicks and Marge are awakened without warning when Eddie Peace shows up accompanied by a proper-looking young couple named Gerald and Jody. Gerald wants to write a candid and gritty piece on the booming heroin scene, and he feels that he must experience the drug before attempting to write about it. After injecting everyone else with heroin, Hicks purposefully shoots the drug into Gerald’s vein, knowing it will cause him to overdose. Too drugged to help her husband, Jody watches the scene with bewilderment. Hicks and Marge speed away, leaving Jody and Eddie to deal with Gerald. Overwhelmed by what has just happened, Marge asks Hicks why he would do something so terrible. Hicks responds that he was an American soldier who watched his fellow patriots die, while Gerald and Jody were simply yuppie “Martians.” Hicks thus feels justified in killing Gerald.
Hicks takes Marge into the mountains of New Mexico to the home and former commune of his Buddhist master, or rōshi, Dieter. Although Dieter’s mountain home is a fortress rigged with lights and speakers to scare off intruders, Dieter maintains that he no longer deals in any type of drug other than psychedelic mushrooms, which he uses for “spiritual” purposes.
Meanwhile, Antheil’s men, Danskin and Smitty, have forcefully enlisted Converse to help them reclaim their drugs. Antheil and his men eventually track Hicks, Marge, and the heroin to Dieter’s commune, and a face-off on the mountain ensues. Antheil makes Converse tell Marge that they have Janey and will hurt her if she and Hicks do not cooperate. Realizing that Marge is going to relinquish the heroin, Hicks removes it from her bag and replaces it with sand. As Marge makes her way to Converse and Danskin with what she thinks is the heroin, Hicks hides real drugs in a cave. Hicks is shot in the chest, but he reaches Converse and Marge and tells them to take his truck and meet him on the other side of the mountain so he can return and get the heroin. As he makes his way to the appointed meeting place, he begins to philosophize and hallucinate as a result of his blood loss. Converse and Marge find Hicks dead on the tracks and leave both him and the heroin for Antheil to find.
Bibliography
Elliot, Emory. “History and Will in Dog Soldiers, Sabbatical, and The Color Purple.” Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory 43 (1987): 197-217. Discusses Dog Soldiers as a neorealist text in which the characters are devoid of free will as the Vietnam War devastates American idealism.
Giles, James R. “’The Battle of Bob Hope’ and ’The Great Elephant Zap’: Robert Stone’s Dog Soldiers.” In The Spaces of Violence. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2006. An examination of the representation of mental, physical, and social spaces within the novel.
Karagueuzian, Maureen. “Irony in Robert Stone’s Dog Soldiers.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 24 (1983): 65-73. Engages in a close reading of the irony existent in the names and occupations of the main characters, the narratives of Converse and Hicks, and the overarching story of American culture in relation to the Vietnam War.
Shelton, Frank W. “Robert Stone’s Dog Soldiers: Vietnam Comes Home to America.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 24 (1983): 74-81. Discusses the novel’s Vietnam backdrop as secondary to Stone’s portrayal of the war’s effect on American society. Argues that themes often associated with war, such as moral conflict and political subterfuge, are beyond the scope of the novel and its critique of Darwinism within a corrupted culture.
Stone, Robert. Interview by Maureen Karagueuzian. TriQuarterly 53 (1982): 248-258. Stone discusses literary influences and the themes and ideas present in his work, primarily Dog Soldiers. Talks candidly about issues regarding the United States military, existentialism, the religious structure of the world, and the automatic morality that results in fiction writing.