Man’s adeptness at violence and killing in war is also epitomized by Clancy’s death. Jim has been exposed to the rough life of a soldier at war, such as having to go into trenches with “damp earthwalls and rotting planks”, “decaying corpses”, “rat droppings and piss”, but nothing prepares him for the brutality of Clancy’s death. Jim is aware that war is like a “crazy camping trip under nightmare conditions” but does not expect that “an invisible enemy could kill”. Clancy’s senseless death comes as a shock to him and experiences for the first time the ruthlessness of Man on a personal level. Jim is greatly affected by this; “the hosing off never… left him clean” and often “woke from nightmares drenched in a wetness that dried and stuck”. The previous setting of Jim “buttering slabs of bread” is forcefully juxtaposed with the diversely opposite scene of Clancy’s accident, effectively demonstrating the harsh reality of war. The possibility of land mines does not occur in Jim’s mind and Clancy’s passing further shows another step in Jim’s loss of innocence as he feels touched by the horrors of war, done by men to other men.
Conversely, Malouf shows sparks of human decency through the thoughts of Jim when he realizes that he has no means of helping Eric, as much as he wants to. He visits Eric in hospital out of respect for Clancy and also because he knows no one else will, seeing as Eric is an orphan. Jim is torn between sympathy for him and the growing unease from the young victim’s “monstrous” questions as he is aware of his inability to be of any help. Jim begins to critically view “the structure of the world they lived in” and the “responsibility [the government] could be expected to assume”. The soldiers fighting in the war have made an extraordinary sacrifice without any form of social security or government schemes and Jim sees the awaiting fates of young victims like Eric, bleak and unpromising. He cries later for the countless lives ruined by war who, like Eric, “asked for little, and [had] been given less and [will spend their lives] demanding [their] due”. He understands that they have nothing to live for now and is upset at these injustices of war. Therefore, Jim exemplifies Man’s capacity to be good from his compassion towards Eric and other soldiers.
Amidst the hysteria, Jim has a second encounter with Wizzer in a shell hole where he redeems himself for his earlier murderous intent towards Wizzer. Jim is “alarmed” by Wizzer’s assumption that the two men are “two of a kind” in “cowardice” but decides to overcome his fears. Although he “[feels] a terrible temptation to join Wizzer” in giving up and staying, Jim tries to persuade Wizzer to leave with him so that they might have a chance of surviving. Jim wants Wizzer to go with him as “it was the only way to wipe all this clean”, with reference to his past feelings of violence towards Wizzer. Finally, Jim faces up to his cowardice, makes his way back on his own and feels “delivered into his own hands again, clean and whole”. Having regained his personal integrity, Jim’s willingness to be good even in dire circumstances as he has tried hard to save Wizzer, despite being unsuccessful, shows that Man has the capacity to do the right thing for honour and comradeship.
The vast opposites of human nature are thoroughly explored in the novel, mostly through Jim’s experiences with war and his friends that have a personal effect on him. His opinion of ‘savagery’ never wavers and he experiences this when Wizzer confronts him with the threat of brute force, with the vicious killing of Clancy, the absence of acknowledgement of the underrepresented soldiers involved in the war and the result of violence that can break a person’s resolve to live. Through Jim’s life in war, Malouf expands on the thoughts of various characters he comes into contact with and Man’s capacity to be both good and evil in Fly Away Peter in detail.
