机器与战争机器——美国战争小说中的士兵命运

Machine and War Machine in American War Novels

现代战争中,机器发挥着越来越大的作用,产生着越来越大的杀伤力。士兵与机器形成了一种相辅相成、相生相克的关系:士兵既是机器的运用者,又是机器的运用对象。作为前者,士兵运用战争的机器,消灭敌人,赢得战争。作为后者,士兵本身就是战争机器可以随时替换和牺牲的部件。他们既是战争机器的执行者,又是战争机器的受害者,在消灭他人的同时也被他人所消灭。美国主流战争小说深刻表现了这一悖论。然而与生命的毁灭相比,战争机器对人性的扭曲与泯灭更是从斯蒂芬.克莱恩以降的美国主流战争小说家关注的重点。美国战争小说表明,作为战争机器的部件,士兵只能顺应机器运转,任何人敢于反抗必将遭到这部机器的无情碾压,这就是美国士兵的命运。

Machine plays a more and more important role in modern warfare,producing more killing power.Soldiers and machine have formed a cooperative and yet neutralizing relationship.Soldiers are operators of the machine,and also the objects operated by machine.As the former,soldiers make use of machine to eliminate enemies and win the war.As the latter,soldiers are parts of the machine,sacrificial and replaceable.They are at the same time the operators and victims of the war machine,killing and getting killed.The mainstream American war novels have profoundly expressed this paradox.But compared with the destruction of lives,war machine's distortion of human nature has drawn more attention of the American war novelists.Novels like Three Soldiers show that as parts of the war machine,soldiers could only cooperate with the machine.Anyone wishing to rebel will be crushed.