Student Scholarship
Document Type
Research Paper
Abstract
Pax Americana, presents a complex, multi-part allegorical poem that explores themes of war, guilt, and the human condition through a structure inspired by classic epic journeys. The first section, titled The Guerre, follows a narrator thrust into the Vietnam War, which he initially views as a personal quest to prove his worth to a demanding lover named Laura. The battlefield is depicted as a landscape of existential despair and physical agony, where soldiers encounter horrors like gas-induced blindness and napalm burns. The narrative critiques the detached leadership of generals and politicians while characterizing the war as a cyclical, internal conflict between the self and the self.
The second part, The Slums, shifts the setting to a gritty urban environment, where the narrator seeks revenge and redemption. He interacts with Lieutenant Mary, a Salvation Army worker dedicated to saving the lost souls of the city, including an addict known as Junky Jesus. Through a series of convoluted social maneuvers involving characters like the defiant Eva and the lustful Adam Add, the narrator uncovers the truth behind a stolen diamond and Laura's own infidelities. This section emphasizes the interconnectedness of sin and the masks people wear to hide their true natures.
The final part, Earthly Paradise, moves the action to Lindenwood, where a student protest serves as a backdrop for the characters' ultimate transformations. The poem utilizes scientific and evolutionary imagery to describe the struggle for consciousness and the resolution of the various subplots. While the narrator is ultimately separated from Laura, the story concludes with a sense of cosmic order, as characters like Adam and Eva find reform and Lieutenant Mary finds her own version of peace through her care for the broken. The work ends with the traditional Sanskrit word for peace, Shantih.
Research Highlights
The Problem: The text explores the existentialist despair and the psychological fragmentation of the individual following the Vietnam War, framed as "the war of the self against the self".
The Method: The author employs a "Narrative Symphony" structure, divided into three parts—The Guerre, The Slums, and Earthly Paradise—to analyze themes of guilt, identity, and social upheaval.
Qualitative Finding: The narrator concludes that the external conflict of the Vietnam War serves as a manifestation of internal "personal extinction" and self-loathing; the transition from combat to civilian life at Lindenwood reveals a "graveyard of culture" where individual identities are subsumed by "mortified anonymity" and social revolt.
Finding: The work posits that reconciliation and "Earthly Paradise" are only achievable through the integration of the "missing half" of the self and the rejection of "theatrics" and "self-indulgent make-believe" in favor of creative truth.
Publication Date
1974
Recommended Citation
Churchill, David, "Pax Americana" (1974). Student Scholarship. 183.
https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/student-research-papers/183
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
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