User:AceOfSouls/sandbox

This is a very short synthesis that doesn't have a clear focus at present. I think you might want to consider a more structured approach: 1) What are the themes in Old Man's War? [Discuss and define them all together in sequence] 2) How are those themes treated? 3) How is the treatment of some of those themes influenced by Heinlein's Starship Troopers? --Jmdeane1 (talk) 16:33, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Themes
The main theme of which Old Mans War was based on was military science fiction science but themes of the ethics of life extension, friendship, marriage, the significance of mortality, what makes on human and individual identity are present within the novel. These themes are common throughout the novel starting off with the theme of aging. Aging plays its biggest role near the beginning of the novel with the CDF being able to find a way to reverse the effects of aging. The themes of marriage and friendship define and add in depth characterization to John Perry by showing how much he loved his wife and later are intensified when Jane is introduced. When it comes to identity and humanity John Perry is the focus of attention and his characteristics by the end of the novel whether one believes John Perry is or is not human.

Almost all of these themes are due to the characters which are developed within the novel. Scalzi states that he was influenced Robert Heinlein’s Star Troopers and modeled his books format after Heinlein’s novels. He wanted to make the story as sympathetic as possible to the reader in which one can understand events such as being in a war. Scalzi took what he learned about Heinlein and made his findings into four lessons about characters and how to create a novel centered on the characters. These lessons are that one’s story should only exist for ones characters, make room in ones characters for the reader, make ones characters talk like people, and make ones characters act like people. His novels themes were based of the four lessons in which to make a character as connectable as possible while still keeping his theme of space military.