The Naked and the Dead is a novel written by Norman Mailer. Published by Rinehart & Company in 1948, when he was 25, it was his debut novel. It depicts the experiences of a platoon during World War II, based partially on Mailer's experiences as a cook with the 112th Cavalry Regiment during the Philippines Campaign in World War II. The book quickly became a bestseller, paving the way for other Mailer works such as The Deer Park, Advertisements for Myself, and The Time of Our Time. He believed The Naked and the Dead to be his most renowned work. It was the first popular novel about the war and is considered one of the greatest English-language novels.John Bear, The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times bestsellers since the first list, 50 years ago, Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1992, pp. 31-39 It was adapted into a film in 1958.
In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Naked and the Dead 51st on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
Plot
The story takes place on Anopopei, a fictional island in the South Pacific. American forces are faced with a campaign to drive out the Japanese so that Americans can advance into the Philippines. The novel focuses on one platoon.
Staff Sergeant Sam Croft, Woodrow Wilson, and Roy Gallagher are playing cards the night before a scheduled attack. They are members of a recon platoon fighting in the Asian theater of World War II on Anopopei. The next morning, as the platoon takes boats to the island, they are nervous. The assault begins, and as the platoon waits to come to the island, they nervously joke amongst themselves. Once the squad reaches the beach, they begin digging foxholes. Stanley picks a fight with Oscar Ridges and Red Valsen, but ultimately Red backs down. Croft leaves to find his commanding officer. Once they have begun to settle on the beach, the Japanese attack. The platoon splits up. Corporal Toglio, Hennessey, and Ridges have completed their foxholes, so they stay on the beach. Brown, Gallagher, Wilson, Red, Stanley, and Sergeant Julio Martinez run after Croft. As the beach is shelled, Hennessey is killed by shrapnel.
Later, Croft pleads with officers to give him more men to replace those lost. He ultimately earns a replacement, bringing the depleted platoon up to fourteen men out of an intended twenty. Roth and Goldstein, two of the new men in the platoon, bond over their Jewish heritage.
Lieutenant Robert Hearn snaps at other officers, and Major General Edward Cummings steps in. Hearn and Cummings form an odd friendship. The two talk in Cummings's tent at night. They discuss philosophy and Cummings analyzes Hearn’s personality. Cummings tells Hearn that, as an officer, he must develop resentment for enlisted men.
Roth and Minetta are separated from the rest of the squad, and when they hear gunfire, they assume recon must be in a firefight. As Roth keeps watch, he falls asleep at his post and wakes up Stanley a half-hour late. The next day, the other half of the platoon moves anti-tank guns, slowed down by the mud. Wyman drops his leg of the gun, and it rolls down a hill. When he tries to take responsibility, Croft thinks he is covering for Goldstein, whom he blames instead. Ironically, Goldstein comes to believe that he himself was responsible for the failure.
The entire platoon meets back up and are attacked by Japanese soldiers while sleeping. Croft is one of the men on watch when they attack, and he leads the platoon in repelling the Japanese, killing multiple Japanese soldiers. Toglio gets hit in the arm during the battle, meaning he will be discharged. The soldiers say he is lucky because his wound will not prevent him from doing anything once it heals, but he still gets to return to America. The Americans fend off the attack.
Cummings and Hearn continue their antagonistic relationship, and Cummings assigns Hearn to oversee the construction of a recreation tent for the officers. Hearn realizes he is feeling the resentment towards the enlisted men that Cummings predicted. While discussing war and philosophy and playing chess, the two realize they are not fond of each other.
Croft, Red, and Gallagher run into four Japanese soldiers in the forest, who do not notice them. Croft throws a grenade, killing three of the soldiers. Red goes to finish off the remaining soldier, but his gun jams. The soldier rushes Red with a bayonet. Croft comes out and stops the soldier, and the Japanese man surrenders. Red goes back to camp, and Croft and Gallagher take the soldier prisoner. Croft gives the prisoner a cigarette and some chocolate. The prisoner shows them a picture of his family, and Gallagher tells him his wife is going to have a baby soon. Croft gives him another cigarette and then shoots him in the face, which brings him a perverse sense of pleasure.
Wilson hears about a sergeant in another platoon who makes liquor. He borrows money from a few other men to buy some. Wilson buys four canteens and brings three back to the squad, hiding one for himself. The men get drunk together. Wilson offers Goldstein a drink, but he refuses. The men mock Goldstein for being Jewish, and he realizes he hates everyone around him. He writes to his wife that he cannot remember why he is fighting. Wilson drinks the canteen he stashed before going on watch. As he stands by the machine gun, drunk, he shoots a bush. The men wake up, thinking they are under attack. When Croft realizes that Wilson is the only one shooting, he yells at him.
Hearn sits on a beach relaxing with the other officers as the enlisted men work in the forest. He realizes he does not like any of the other officers, and he has stronger feelings of resentment towards the enlisted men. The men discuss all the important men they knew back in America, and one of them claims to have known Hearn's father. Hearn quickly realizes that this man did not know his father, and he likely did not know any of the other important people he claimed to know either.
A load of mail comes in. Wyman is upset because he did not get anything from his girlfriend. Red comforts him. Wilson's wife demands he send more money, and Wilson has Gallagher transcribe an angry response for him. Gallagher reads his own letters and discovers that an old friend earned a promotion that he was once up for. The chaplain reports to Gallagher that his wife has died in childbirth, but his child survived. He continues to get letters from his wife. When the last letter arrives, Gallagher becomes upset. He wonders what the point of fighting is.
Stanley, who has been promoted to corporal, clashes with Sergeant Brown. The two are unsure how to relate to each other. Stanley tells a story about a time he stole and then repaid money from a store he worked at to buy cheap furniture. From the beach, Croft spots a couple of Japanese soldiers in the forest. The platoon, led by Croft, shoots them both, but Minetta is hit in the leg. Stanley begins to wonder if his wife is being faithful.
The fighting settles down for a few weeks, and the lines begin to become stagnant. Cummings worries that the men are getting too comfortable in one place, which will make them unwilling to fight. He fears that if he cannot shift the front line, he will be replaced. His anxiety leads to health problems and constant outbursts directed at Hearn. Cummings commands Hearn to have Clellan, an enlisted man, put flowers in his tent each morning. This inspires conflict between Hearn and Clellan, as Cummings intends.
Hearn becomes frustrated and easily provoked. Cummings instructs him to pick up supplies for the officers' mess hall, but secretly pays off the seller to keep the goods from Hearn. Hearn bribes an assistant to get the supplies and later realizes what Cummings has done. Hearn realizes his past experiences with Cummings have all been aimed to anger him. Furious, Hearn extinguishes a cigarette on the floor of Cummings's tent when he is gone.
Cummings discovers that a sergeant has been falsifying his patrol reports and realizes that his entire command has likely been doing the same thing. He vows to crack down on disciplinary issues. He returns to his tent to discover Hearn's cigarette. He summons Hearn to his tent for the first time since they played chess. They have an intense discussion about the war and what will happen afterwards. Cummings reiterates his distaste for women. Cummings explains to Hearn that he wants to be a god. Cummings smokes a cigarette and throws it on the ground. He commands Hearn to pick it up or he will be court martialed. Hearns asks for a transfer to another division and Cummings denies his request, telling him to work labor under Dalleson. Hearns questions Cummings' ability to garner the respect of his unit.
Minetta is in the hospital from his gunshot wound, which is healing quickly. He worries that he will be sent back to the front lines, so he deliberately re-opens his wound and feigns insanity by firing his gun in the medical tent and yelling about enemy soldiers. A doctor is skeptical, but Minetta is sent to a separate tent for mental patients. Minetta spends a couple days in the mental ward and realizes he cannot take it anymore, so he claims to have woken up with no memory of the past week. The doctor who was skeptical pulls him aside and tells him that he knew Minetta was faking. When Minetta goes back to the platoon, he reports that the hospital was nicer than the front, so Red and Wilson try to report as sick. The doctors dismiss Red, but they caution Wilson that he'll need surgery after the war.
Cummings tries to devise a new attack plan. He thinks long and hard about the most effective ways to outmaneuver the Japanese. He comes up with a plan that he thinks will be militarily successful and also inspire the men to fight hard. Cummings asks Dalleson what he would think if Cummings transferred Hearn to another unit, which Dalleson perceives as odd, since generals are usually not concerned with such minutiae.
When Cummings hears that he will not get naval support, he has to adjust his attack plan. He comes up with a new strategy. The plan is to send a recon squad, led by Hearn, who Cummings will transfer, to scout a trail from the backside of the island towards the beach, thereby allowing Cummings to send in a full company through that route from the back. The secondary company would then overpower the beach defenses, allowing for a full invasion from the beach.
Hearn joins the recon platoon on the boat to the other side of the island. He immediately realizes that Croft knows more than he does, and he doesn't want the rest of the squad to realize that. Croft immediately dislikes Hearn because Hearn tries to befriend the men in the squad. Stanley tells Croft that he wishes Croft were still in charge. All the men are anxious about their own standing within the platoon, particularly the noncommissioned officers. Croft and Hearn struggle for control of the platoon early in the mission.
Roth and Minetta struggle to keep up with the rest of the platoon as they try to bushwack through the jungle. Croft gets on them for being slow, and Minetta snaps at Croft. Croft realizes Hearn will soon get comfortable around the platoon and take more control. Goldstein and Ridges end up doing most of Roth and Minetta’s work. Minetta picks on Roth for being Jewish, and Goldstein, who is also Jewish, takes Minetta's side. The platoon slowly works their way through the jungle out to open fields.
Hearn and Croft continue to subtly struggle for power. Hearn wants to try to go through a pass in the mountain range, but Croft wants to go over the mountain. Hearn continues to try to befriend the men in the platoon, which further angers Croft. Martinez, as the best at forging a trail, walks in front. Hearn stays in the back of the squad and realizes that no matter what he does he will not be able to get the men to like him.