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Zoe Zecchin
Mrs. Crichton
AP English Language
2 December 2013
Under the Banner Where Men Win Glory
As domestic and foreign deaths have shaped American society, they have also inspired
truth and research about the background information of the told death accounts. The seemingly
suspicious death of the patriotic NFL safety, Pat Tillman, and the religious defended murder of
Brenda Lafferty, struck the interest of John Krakauer. Although Tillman was killed in action, it
was not immediately revealed that the cause of his death was by friendly fire; with this
knowledge, distinguished author, John Krakauer further delved into the life of Pat Tillman to
illustrate the government cover up that was not as uncommon as many thought it to be in his
novel Where Men Win Glory. Mrs. Lafferty, married to a Mormon fundamentalist, and her
fifteen-month-old daughter were murdered by her brother-in-law for a religious prophecy,
exposed in Under the Banner of Heaven. Krakauer uses his unique writing style to captivate the
reader and bring to life these attention grabbing narratives. Throughout these tragic tales of
death, Krakauer employs a specific syntactical style by inserting text and information
interjections to educate the reader of the events, as well as unique structure and imagery to entice
the audience about destructive fundamentalist Mormons and equally destructive Washington
cover-up.
In his tale of Pat Tillman's short but inspiring life, Krakauer gives a firm foundation of
not only Pat's earlier years, but also the growth of the Taliban and the terrorists it spawned. With
the unfamiliar football and military vocabulary, Krakauer further clarifies the insightful
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knowledge with the use of dashes. Once the dash is put in place, he justifies the importance of
the topic or word by giving more information to help the reader understand with use of context
clues. The explanation of the "Zawar Kili- where, according to CIA intelligence, a summit would
be held... between bin Laden and the senior al-Qaeda leadership," illustrates its importance
through the added detail of the interjection established by the dash (Krakauer, W.M.W.G., page
93). The context clues given by this interjection allow the reader to understand that Zawar Kili is
important because it is where bin Laden was said to be conversing with his followers. Likewise,
Krakauer uses these dashes similarly in Under the Banner if Heaven as he explains when
"Michael had had intercourse with Debbie when she was pregnant- a serious violation of the Law
of Chastity" the audience can gather the trouble they could get into by the added information
(U.T.B.O.H.,39). Because of the fundamentalist Mormon religion, there are many people, places,
and polygamist terms that are foreign to the reader; the added dashes interject new details in an
effort to help the reader stay engaged. Krakauer's decision to clarify certain words and phrases
gives the audience the evidence to know more about the subject and feel involved with the text,
shaping their views of the fundamentalists and U.S. government to that of Krakauers. These
similarities in both books show the recurring evidence of his style through his use of dashes.
Although his unique style in striving to connect the reader with the story through his
interjections is similar in both of his books, Krakauer structures his two narratives very
differently. To show the growth of the Taliban and Tillman, Krakauer wrote Where Men Win
Glory in a chronological order. By introducing new pieces of information in the natural order
they took place, the story flows through the reader's mind and allows them comprehend essential
sections of the story that will later take effect in the course of action. Krakauer begins with Pat's
desire to play both football and baseball, but when the baseball coach fails "to recognize
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[Tillman's] potential, Pat [resolves] to... focus on football instead" which ignites his successful
high school career and later events as a professional football player (W.M.W.G.4). The domino
effect of life, how one thing leads to another, is easily understood when it is told in the way the
events of life build on each other. Unlike these sequential events that follow Tillman's career and
the Taliban's formation and growth, Under the Banner of Heaven is told in an irregular order.
With simple anecdotes at the beginning of the story to give personal examples of the strict rules
of fundamentalist Mormonism, he introduces the religion when it became headline news; then
Krakauer refers to more incidents with fundamentalists without preceding chronologically. Mr.
Krakauer writes of Elizabeth Smart's abduction by a Mormon Fundamentalist, then puts forth the
founding of the Mormon church by "Joseph [Smith]... a modern prophet"(U.T.B.O.H.,112); later
he explains the start of the end of Brenda Lafferty's life. This discontinuous organization of
events creates a gripping story that pulls the reader in through anecdotes presented to inform the
reader of the basic rules of Mormon Fundamentalism.
Throughout Krakauer's sequential or non-sequential narrative, he inserts large amounts of
texts from people with personal, first account interactions with the main topic. The addition of
these large quotes gives the reader the feeling of being with Pat Tillman, or living under Mormon
Fundamentalist rules. These allow the reader to be connected with the events and involved with
the story. As Pat explains his life in the training camps, as reporters analyze the war, as Flora
Jessop describes the extremities of iniquitous mormons, as Dianna tells of her persuasive
brother-in-law, all in long quoted paragraphs, the audience is put into the story by these
beholders. Bringing the reader into the story, persuades them into continuing to see what happens
to the characters they have now become invested in through their personal tragedies.
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Along with the personal accounts of the eyewitnesses, the excruciatingly detailed deaths
left the reader in the room with the Lafferty brothers, and on the ground with Tillman. Mr.
Krakauer used graphic words to describe the death and aftermath of these casualties. As the
bullets careened through [Tillmans] flesh and then exited his body, Krakauer uses the imagery
to show the audience the effects of the war, but more specifically what the U.S. Army has been
told to do (W.M.W.G. 318-319). The stream of blood illustrates a distinct picture in the
readers mind to present an atmosphere in which they can take part in story (W.M.W.G. 319).
Furthermore, the gruesome account of Erica Laffertys death is equally was descriptive. All that
held the babys head to her tiny body were a few thin shreds of skin and tendons is an excellent
example of the depicted murder and the images projected into the readers mind (U.T.B.O.H.
188). The pungent images describe the scene and place the audience in the event. However
gruesome, it does create the exhilaration to continue to read and show the brutalities of religion
and government.
Krakauer's unique writing style, structural differences, and detailed images create an
atmosphere for the reader to dive into and immerse themselves into the narrative. With the
pauses and clarifications that are interjected throughout his writing, he establishes his style and
helps the reader understand crucial parts of the story, as well as gives the personal involvement
in the situations through texts and images. He introduces his two narratives differently, yet they
both draw the reader in and make it possible to understand the inclusive stories. Krakauer's
realistic accounts of the lives of the Mormon Fundamentalists, the Lafferty family, Pat Tillman,
and the Tillman family give the reader a clear view of what it was like to be in exceptional
situations with death.

(Words: 1,257)
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Works Cited
Krakauer, Jon. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. New York: Doubleday,
2003. Print.
Krakauer, Jon. Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman. New York: Doubleday,
2009.
Print.