What is mostly at debate in this parable is patriotism. Pride for your country, in this case America, is great, but too much can blind us to certain realities and humanity. During a time of war, we are all so confident and energetic and full of pride that we don't take a moment to step back and see what is really going on. War kills civilization and innocent people, on both sides of the conflict. Twain makes the case: "When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory." This includes gruesome murders, savage injuries, rapes, and many more horribly unmentionable acts. While soldiers are shipped to the front lines and other stations, family and friends back home pray for them, not realizing the damage their praying can cause. They wish for victory, but without meaning to do so they wish upon destruction of life, of civilization, of friendship and innocence. Patriotism leads them to have this blind insatiable need for victory.
In addition to this controversial warning about too much patriotism, The War Prayer also brings to question the stature of God. When the old cloaked man disrupts the prayer and says, "O Lord our God, help us tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded writhing in pain…” , the old man is brutally graphic, and honest about what they are praying to their God for. He continues and is relentless in showing the horribly bloody cost of war and their prayers, “...help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire, turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended in the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst...” He speaks continuously, strenuously making his point, in an attempt to open the eyes and minds of the locals. One should be skeptical of a God with a point of view so biased he would murder hundreds, and thousands of people for the sake of one side’s survival over the other’s. This is a very deep and profound concept, produced by Mr.Twain. It is a manner of thinking that should not be censored to anyone, it may even bring peace to this generation if we are willing to question our so called sacred ways of living.
Some may say that The War Prayer is a short story full of nonsense and backward thinking ideas. One of the local worshipping patriots in the church says: "It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said." During the time of Mark Twain's authoring of this story, his family and friends begged him to not publish it, for fear of bad publicity as well as their safety. Multiple publishers that he visited refused to publish it for fear that it would taint his career. Twain caved in and decided to have it published after his death. He said his wisest words: "None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth." I disagree with the mentality disapproving of his ideals during times of war. People need to understand that there's more to praying for their nation’s victory than meets the eye. War tears apart limbs, lives and love. Most people could not accept Mark Twain and what he wrote in this short at the time. Back then, the United States was not as diverse. We were a nation that believed, for the most part, there was only one God and he was a white Christian man. However, there is more to this world than us and our self-pride, there are billions of more people in world with their own beliefs and ideals. It is time to respect and understand them. It is time to be tolerant of others. Allow children to read this material, allow them to question, and don’t censor it.
This short story’s old cloaked man comes to us with a message, he warns us to keep an open mind, and not be so consumed by patriotic passions. To be careful for what we pray for. Most importantly, Twain helps us understand the results of our actions, and what the other side experiences as a result. If we listen to the message, it can help us accept the other side for who they are. Why would such a book be banned, it is about peacefulness, saving the lives of others through tolerance, thus eliminating bloodshed. It is simply written beautifully. It is amazing that anyone would consider this book controversial, it is about peace. No one will be worse off by reading it. To ban this book would be unpatriotic, to censor it and ignore freedom of speech and freedom of the press would be wrong. The War Prayer teaches an important lesson.
Bibliography
Drum, Kevin. "The Washington Monthly." The Washington Monthly. The Washington Monthly, n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2014.
Twain, Mark, and John Groth. The War Prayer. New York: Published in Association with Harper & Row, 1968. Print.
