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Another recruit, a deserter who kidnapped a small child, held her for ransom, and then murdered her while AWOL, is hanged by the battalion after his arrest and transfer from civilian to military authorities. One of the chapters deals with Ted Hendrick, a fellow recruit and constant complainer who is flogged and expelled for striking his sergeant.įlogging and hanging having become the principal forms of both civil and military punishment in the novel's world. Boot camp is deliberately so rigorous that fewer than 10% of the recruits complete basic training the rest either resign (with no penalty, save never being able to vote) are expelled (likewise) are given medical discharges (which may however be refused) or assigned to lesser duties (enabling them to vote after their service is finished) or die in training.
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Five chapters are spent exploring Rico's training, under the guidance of his chief instructor, Career Ship's Sergeant Charles Zim. Looking forward into the late 20th century from the time the novel was written in the late 1950s).After enlisting in the Mobile Infantry, Rico is assigned to boot camp at Camp Arthur Currie. This structure arose ad hoc after the collapse of the 20th century Western democracies, brought on by both social failures at home and military defeat by the Chinese Hegemony overseas (i.e.
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Free speech, assembly, etc.), but cannot vote or hold public office. Those residents who opt not to perform Federal Service retain the other rights generally associated with a modern democracy (e.g. The raid itself, one of the few instances of actual combat in the novel, is relatively brief: the Mobile Infantrymen land in the capital city, destroy their targets while trying to avoid unnecessary Skinny casualties, and withdraw, suffering three injured (one fatal) in the process.The story then flashes back to Rico's graduation from high school and his decision to sign up for Federal Service, rather than attend Harvard University, over the objections of his wealthy father.
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We learn that he is a 'cap' trooper (called this because they are dropped in capsules from the ship in orbit toward their drop zones) in the Terran Federation's Mobile Infantry (M.I.).
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It is narrated as a series of flashbacks - one of only a few Heinlein novels to use that narrative device and contains large sections of character discussion and introspection, as well as exposition, all meant to detail the political theory and philosophical beliefs underlying the society that Juan Rico lives in.The novel opens with Rico aboard the corvette Rodger Young, platoon transport for 'Rasczak's Roughnecks', about to embark on a raid against the planet of the ', allies of the Arachnids. It chronicles the experiences of Juan 'Johnnie' Rico, the story's narrator, during his enlistment and training in the Mobile Infantry, and his participation in an interstellar war between the and the (referred to as 'the Bugs') of Klendathu. Contents Plot summaryStarship Troopers is a novel set in an unspecified time in the future, although probably not in the far-flung future. The name or term 'Starship Troopers' refers to more than one character or idea.
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