Goodbye, Farewell and Dismantle the Traditional War Narrative

Giselle Omar

Goodbye, Farewell and Dismantle the Traditional War Narrative

There's nothing more hotly contested than a series finale. After investing years into a show, people are hoping to get the ultimate payoff. Some series finales fall short, and some are able to give audiences the resolution they deserve in a logical manner. From 1983 until 2010, anti-war dramedy M*A*S*H’s finale “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” was the most watched television broadcast in American history. It still stands as the most-watched finale of any television series, as well as the most-watched episode^[1]. Throughout it’s tenure, M*A*S*H tackled some of the hardest dilemmas in American society: women’s rights, race, intercultural relations, peace movements, and most importantly, the senselessness of war. Did it do it perfectly? Of course not. Did it do it memorably? Most definitely.  M*A*S*H represents an entire counterculture movement, questioning the system that allows this type of chaos to manifest, whilst the main characters exchange quick-witted banter. Thematically speaking, the finale is essentially a microcosm of the entire series. It deals with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), humanizing the “other” during times of crisis, and the gray area that is war as a whole. Never has another television series finale had such a massive, unanimously positive cultural reception.

The show is often cited as TV's first true dramedy. Showing the many facets of war, M*A*S*H aided Americans in humanizing the “other,” and as a result, making them susceptible to the anti-war narrative^[2]. The basic plot of “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen.” is the final days of the Korean war, before the armistice was signed, and everyone getting ready to go home. Over the course of 11 years every character is waiting to go home, but when the time finally comes we all see how the war will affect them for the rest of their lives, mentally and physically.

As it is relatively an ensemble cast, and quite lengthy even for a series finale (over two hours long), it is difficult to analyze the development of each character. Therefore, I will be placing an emphasis on the main character’s arc. While everyone was changed by the war, no one went through more in the series finale than Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce. The series finale starts out with Hawkeye in a mental hospital with a psychiatrist, Doctor Sidney Freedman. It’s unclear to the audience why he was in there but something clearly happened that caused him to snap. As the episode progresses, Hawkeye continues to talk with Dr. Freedman in order to find out why he went crazy and tried to operate on a man without using anesthesia. Hawkeye tells Dr. Freedman that on the bus ride back from the beach they discovered that Chinese forces were nearby so they turned off all the lights and had to remain completely silent. The problem is, one woman had her chicken clucking and it was endangering everyone so Hawkeye yells at her to keep the chicken quiet. The woman then smothers the chicken in order to protect everyone on the bus. What comes next is one of the most heart wrenching moments to ever be on television.

Hawkeye realizes it wasn’t a chicken; it was a baby. The woman had smothered her own baby, and once Hawkeye realizes this, he breaks down sobbing. Only now that he stopped suppressing that memory he can now begin to heal. Upon seeing what had happened, Pierce was so traumatized that he repressed the memory of what occurred. When they returned to camp, he attempted to operate on a patient without anesthesia, while accusing the anesthesiologist of trying to smother the patient.Throughout the series, Hawkeye was always quick with a joke but the finale had him break down to show the audience that anyone could crack under these conditions. Such a raw representation of the many forms of Post Traumatic Stress, forced people to acknowledge the detrimental psychological effects.

As a sitcom star, Alan Alda’s Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce was unique. Prior to his arrival on the scene, the TV landscape had been largely dominated by family men and blue collar figures who adhered largely to the American ideal (i.e. work hard, listen to the government, and you’ll get ahead). He is representative of Post-Modernist period that he spawned from, as Hawkeye was a rejection of decrepit ideals. He broke the mold of a disaffected blue blood caught in a terrible situation. In his way, he was TV’s attempt to engulf and humanize the ongoing protests against the Vietnam War which embroiled society at the time as the show’s release. Hawkeye was a a brash prankster who filled his days with all sorts of fun, disreputable behavior only to transform magically into a leader when the situation called for it.

In addition to Hawkeye, every other character experienced their own personal strife in direct response to the final days of war. Father John Mulcahy, in the series finale, and Amen, during a mortar attack, he selflessly ran out to the POW cell and released them to the military guard, rather than leave them as "sitting ducks." During the attack, the concussion from one of the mortars caused him to lose most of his hearing. The rest of the episode depicts his struggle with losing a bona-fide occupational qualification. How can he possibly be a priest if he can’t hear his congregation? There is significance in a man representing peace and faith, losing his peace and faith, as a direct result of the impersonal, cruelty of war.

 M*A*S*H’s finale also makes a very pointed statement on our ignorance of the “other.” The “other” is essentially anyone who an individual does not identify with. The lack of identification allows the individual to distance themselves from the ramifications of their actions toward the “other.”^[3] Major Charles Winchester, an uptight, posh doctor, encounters a raggedy group of five Chinese soldiers on a motorcycle, he is greatly surprised when they surrender and follow him back to camp, playing musical instruments. He takes an interest in this and begins conducting the Chinese musicians in rehearsals of one of his favorite Mozart works. On the surface, he is irritated with them over their inability to play the piece correctly, but he is actually bonding with them and attempting to tak. All it takes is one connection to eliminate the “us versus them” mentality.