Post-Heroic Portrayal of War in Kevin Powers’ The Yellow Birds

Abstract

Kevin Powers is a war veteran, who employs his experience as a war veteran in the American army in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 to narrate his debut novel, The Yellow Birds (2013). This study investigates Powers’ portrayal of post-heroism in the context of the Second Gulf War. This novel illustrates the deformed face of war within an emerging post-heroic atmosphere. Post-heroism, instead of bravery and chivalry, signals the decline of heroic ethos in the context of war, in which soldiers are left to question the true value of sacrifice in the battlefield. The narrative’s battlefield imagery, emotive repercussions of those involved and motives of war are examined by referring to the soldiers’ post-heroism. Albeit war is personified as a looming figure at the onset of the narrative, Powers’ post-heroic narrative leaves little doubt of the futility of engaging with war. Keywords: Kevin Powers; War on Iraq; Post-Heroism; The Yellow Birds; War Narrative.