She walks, she talks, she’s full of chalk

Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point
Elizabeth Samet

How do you convince an eighteen-year-old cadet that poetry has any relevance to his life? Poetry seems pretty unimportant in the face of roadside bombs and suicide bombers. Hell, I have a hard time justifying poetry to my eighteen-year-old students, and none of them will ever come close to Iraq. So I read Samet’s Soldier’s Heart with a special interest, although one does not need to be an English teacher to enjoy this memoir.

Soldier’s Heart consists of a collection of essays on a variety of topics involving war, women, religion, sacrifice, and, of course, literature. Over the course of the work, those unfamiliar with West Point Military Academy deepen their understanding of the institution, as Samet seeks to extinguish the stereotype of "West Point as a kind of modern-day Sparta, where training and discipline trump creativity and independence of mind."

Samet, who has been an English professor at West Point Military Academy for ten years, discusses her struggle to develop creative, independent thought in cadets who are trained to think as a group, not as individuals. She proves that cadets are not automatons capable of only obedience; they are intelligent, thoughtful, and often philosophic young adults facing a very uncertain future. Literature helps them wade the murky waters of right and wrong, duty and disobedience.

Included in her discussion of her own approach to teaching literature (reviving along the way my interest in Wilfred Owen, the oft-overlooked poet of WWI) are anecdotes about life at West Point itself, such as the “knowledge” each new cadet must spend his (or her) summer memorizing. For example, if stopped on campus, a plebe must answer the question, “How’s the cow?” with the reply, “She walks, she talks, she’s full of chalk, the lacteal fluid extracted from the female of the bovine species is highly prolific to the nth degree.” It’s anecdotes like these that really make Soldier’s Heart intriguing.

I'm full of what?!? Go ef yourself.

I must be honest and say that, my own background in teaching literature notwithstanding, it was not the discussion of literature that made me enjoy Soldier's Heart. True, these sections were interesting and revived my interest in several authors and works that I've been meaning to look at again, but these parts were secondary to the human portraits that people the pages.

Samet paints clear, often touching, portraits of young men and women who are frequently intimidated by the future that awaits them. The lessons that they take from both their experiences and the literature they read can teach us all. It's not a perfect book; I'll admit to skimming some parts that quite frankly didn't pique my interest, but I don't perceive the military in the same way as I did before reading Soldier's Heart.

In a nutshell: An interesting perspective on the importance of literature in the face of war, but, even more importantly, it proves the extent to which literature affects the life of every individual.

Bibliolatry Scale: 4 out of 6 stars