An analysis of ”Medal of Honor”
”Medal of Honor” (Chris Ryan) is a book, that’s for certain, but it’s hard to define if it’s a novel or just a short story, it’s something much more, it’s a story, a story of life and death.
The book takes the reader into a SAS soldier Jock’s head. He is the protagonist of the book and also plays the part of the narrator, which in this case is a first person narrator. Jock is tough but can keep his head calm, the perfect traits of a special force soldier. Jock learns a lot about his squadmates during the story and they become good friends. The antogonist of the book is not just Jock’s enemy but also the enemy of the UK and the USA. His name is Al-Zaranj. He is a terrorist leader of the Al Qaeda in Afganistan.
The reader is brought into 21st-century Afganistan and its harsh and unforgiving nature where everything varies from one extreme to another. Afganistan plays a very important role in the book. The characters of the book have come to Afganistan to fight against terrorism and to revenge the WTC attacks. This is the conflict that the whole book is based on. The soldiers end their quest by destroying an enemy base in the mountains near a small village called Pajay. Al-Zaranj is also eliminated in this succesful operation.
The first thing the reader notices from the book is that its theme is obviously warfare. But when examining more closely the reader begins to see other things in the storyline. It is about learning to trust the right people and the ability to forget other’s mistakes and even forgive them.
The book uses a lot of technical terms along with some similes for example: ”-like a Christmas tree.” The technical terms make the book seem more convincing.