The image of the Iraqis in Kevin Powers’ novel "The Yellow Birds"

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Research Paper

The image of the Iraqis in Kevin Powers' novel "The Yellow Birds"

Professor: Patrick Hicks

Student: Diana Maratova

The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers is a great novel dedicated to one of the most horrific events in the history of the world - the Iraq war. The novel contents stories of struggle, fight, love, friendship, betrayal, fear. It is a story of complicated life experiences. Kevin Powers ably describes what it is like to be a part of the war. The young American soldier is the central character of the book. Readers seem to be put on the surface of the wartime and made to experience Bartle's tangled story. An average man has been sent to foreign country to struggle without understanding, to kill without certain purpose. The narrator's whole life has been changed during and after the war. The novel has two timelines: the Iraq war time and time back in the USA. As veteran of the Iraq war Kevin Powers creates a true war story, describing hardships of the war and an emotional impact of the war on a person. From the first sight it seems like it is an ordinary war novel written by ex-soldier. However, The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers is extremely different war novel. It touches different aspects of the war. While most of writers focus on telling the war story from the American perspective, one can see from the novel The Yellow Birds that Kevin Powers describes the way American soldiers perceive Iraqi people. Soldiers have been placed into new life circumstances. Without having any clue about the culture and history of Iraq, Americans have entered the counted and started destroying a huge and rich heritage of that nation. The Americans have acted in a certain way: they have explored the country only after nearly destroying it. Altoma writes: “It is therefore natural for Iraq to become an inexhaustible source of multifarious studies both academic and nonacademic focusing most often on war-related issues: violence, religious or ethnic conflicts, oil, depleted uranium, and other topics, which are undoubtedly significant” (Altoma 12). Meaning to say, the interest has increased only after the actual conquest. No one has a right to exterminate the culture, especially if attacking side is not aware of that particular country's history and culture. Kevin Powers in The Yellow Birds supported the idea of American soldiers being illiterate and being not concerned about the amount of destruction they have made. Enemies are just the people who must be killed or can be used. Powers does give brief description of the way soldiers have perceived the enemies.

Each person has his/her own life story, family, friends, dreams, fears. And his/her death affects others, and it is obvious that killing is worst crime that can be ever committed. But one of the outstanding feelings that American soldiers have had towards Iraqis has been indifference. Americans have been conquerors, who haven't been aware of the actual purpose of the war, which is peace. It seems like from their perspective war is a huge killing machine. Iraqis are just target, that must be killed. They are people without faces and lives, all of them are hajjis, no matter what age, gender they are. Soldiers have been killing everyone without distinguishing: “I looked through my scope and saw an old man behind the wheel and elderly woman in the back passenger seat…He couldn't see them…The car stopped in the middle of the road, but Sterling did not stop the shooting… “Holy shit, that bitch got murdered”… There was no grief, or anguish, or joy, or pity in that statement”. (Powers 22). They didn't ask themselves what was these people's quilt, what have they done to merit such attitude. What actually have existed are killing, murdering, nothing else. Famous poet David Krieger writes: “ The children of Iraq have names…The children of Iraq do not wear Saddam's face…The children of Iraq have dreams…What do you call the children of Iraq? Call them Omar, Mohamed, Fahad. Call them Marwa and Tiba. Call them by their names.” Krieger begs “good” Americans not to be indifferent to the nation, especially children, they are exterminating. The results of the war could have been totally different if there has been interest and respect to the foreign county's culture and heritage. How can one destroy the thing that he/she is so aware of? In the novel The Yellow Birds readers can find an Iraqis name only ones. Kevin Powers has done it purposely to make the image of enemy faceless and nameless. As a result of it readers do not have a chance to know anything about Iraqis, even after reading the novel person stays indifferent towards the victims: the Iraqis appear and vanish at the same time. And the worst thing is that even after killing the people of Iraq American soldiers stay not interested in getting to know Iraq. It seems to be outrageous to harm somebody without having any clue about him/her.

The war experience cannot exist without the feeling of the fear. Enemy is a source of endless threat. The Iraqi people are a potential attack. American soldiers have been sent to the foreign country, which has been so unfamiliar for them. However, it is a human nature to be afraid of everything new, strange and unexplored. The ignorance of Iraq's culture and history strengthened the fear. That's why knowledge is a power. When facing something unknown, person expects the worst, he/she builds an image of negative outcomes, develops own “what ifs”. The Iraqis have been synonymous to the death, because death is result of having an enemy. The novel starts with the words: “The war tried to kill us in the spring” (Powers 3). Kevin Powers shares the story of an endless fear of death, fear of enemy. Terrorists, body bombs, unexpected attacks, dead bodies have made the soldiers live with fear in their heads and souls. The feeling of threaten has turned into the feeling of hatred. The feeling of fear lasts forever, during whole lifetime. The phrase that is repeated several times is: “I was afraid” (Powers 168). What is it like to be under the fire or to feel the bullet nearly touching the head? All hardships that soldiers have faced have created a certain way they perceived the enemy. The feeling of the terror has developed two main purposes of American soldier. First is not to die and the second to kill the enemies before being killed: “If you die, it becomes more likely that I will not” (Powers 12). But is it an excuse for committing a crime? novel powers iraq war

The war is complicated: sometimes enemy becomes friend, companion, solution. In the novel The Yellow Birds Kevin Powers gives the readers several examples of Iraqis somehow betraying their nation by cooperating with Americans. But do American soldiers value and appreciate such sacrificing? Iraqi people are used, betrayed, killed and forgotten. They are like dolls in hands of a naughty child. The narrator shares the story of the interpreter, whose name has been Malik: “He'd been a student at the university before the war, studying literature…He wore a hood over his face… `They'll kill me for helping you. They'll kill my whole family'”(Powers 9). Malik has risked a lot, he could have lost everything, but he still has been kind to foreign soldiers by helping them. Malik has been killed in front of the Bartle and his friend, but afterwards Bartle shares his opinion about this occasion: “I didn't think about Malik much after that. He was an incidental figure who only seemed to exist in his relation to my continuing” (Powers 12). The young man has been used and forgotten without any grief, sorrow or regret. The same happened to cartwright, who has helped a lot while Bartle and Sterling have been trying to find and then get rid of Murph's dead body: “Sterling shot the cartwright once, in the face, and he crumbled to the ground. No time to even be surprised by it” (Powers 211). The violence of Americans towards the helpless Iraqis, who have been so useful, makes the readers understand how the war experience effect the person's vision on the value of somebody's life, it kills any feeling of empathy and humanity. The Iraqi people feel that they are used, they do understand the real purpose of American army. David Krieger writes in his poem “Zaid's Misfortune”: “Zaid had the misfortune of being born in Iraq, a country rich with oil. Iraq had the misfortune of being invaded by a country greedy for oil.”

The novel The Yellow Birds author describes a variety of events happening during wartime. But Kevin Powers hasn't paid enough attention on building an image of Iraqis. The main point is that Iraq war is not one-sided struggle. Iraqis have lost a lot too, they have had their own point of view on the cause of the war and the negative role of Americans. American military have ruined the culture, they have felt indifference towards the Iraqis and have used them for own purposes. But as Glantz writes: “`The actions of these few people do not reflect the hearts of the American people,” President Bush intoned after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal broke in 2004. “What took place in that prison does not represent the America that I know'” (Glantz 59). The war has a huge impact on one's personality, so the person who hasn't experienced the war cannot judge the soldier for being cruel and indifferent. The fear of the enemy makes person hate that nation and be eager to kill and destroy. Generally speaking the war novel The Yellow Birds give a description of the way Americans have perceived Iraqi people during the war. Iraqis were threat and source of fear, they were used, but still have remained unknown for westerners. Unfortunately all these elements have caused a creation of a number of stereotypes about this nation and Islamic world in general.

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