Military Brats - Book Report/Review Example

The book reveals a missing puzzle for those who have been raised up in military hence; they can understand their living experiences of life as if they had never lived before. The book covers the story of the military children who had been completely unaware of the societal activities. The book is a result of collective and strenuous efforts of five whole years. The writer has researched and interviewed 80 military brats (born between 1932 – 1964), including the professors, teachers, consultants, psychologists, physicians, social workers etc and concluded that the military children frequently depicted pattern of same cultural uniqueness.

Although the US military has been of different shapes distinctive from one another in the 1900, 1950, and 2000 however the fragments have been much of same including the authoritarianism, idealistic, largely male dominance family set up, mobile lives etc. As a result of the excessive and mounting research, she also found that the experiences of such children during their childhood tenure had been largely common. Considering the excessive mobility, for instance, describes their brought up in absence of their fathers who had been posted to some other areas or were out in the warrior field, and their complete isolation to the civilian societies as they had been moving and changing places.

The figure of the Father throughout the tale has been a dominant one just like that of the godfather personified with “super-macho” warrior type, a heroic model, who used to treat daughters as almost insignificant and invisible, made unfeasible commands over the sons, and treated the family not as members of family, rather as a military unit or a battalion. The book uncovers the feelings of pain and dark side of an individual who has been deprived of social gathering and happiness and the image of a fragile family.

  The writer has highlighted both positive and negative consequences of being raised in a military family where the upbringing involves rigid and strict lifestyle bounded by discipline and responsibilities, drifting rootlessness, utmost dedication to the military mission, respecting military as a profession for the younger ones and taking it up for generations after generations. However, in doing so, there is also loss of life and other personal losses and threats of war etc. Apart from the domestic violence and brutality, Military Brats serves as a path toward healing by providing an insight and catharsis.

“The Great Satiny”, novel by Pat Conroy, a film dramatized on the subsequent story from the novel, television version of story namely “Major Dad” and consequently Mary’s book “Military Brats where she has identified the enduring psychological effects of raising and growing in a military warrior society, have made Marine families a marketable commodity. Military brat is a term that the author has entitled to herself whilst belonging to a military background and raised as an army brat.

Although the book is enriched with recollections and introspection, however she has discussed more deeply the lives of other military families being an anthropologist. The book covers dozens of stories and true anecdotes of the hundreds of families and thousands of children that were raised up at the military bases. The vignette stories were equally true as the scenes spelled out the movie The