In his mind Pineapple Sam clings to the rhetoric that it is necessary to stop the spread of Russian communism. While the more emotional, human side of him is horrified at the actions he sees take place on his fellow man.

It is a revelation of how a youth of the mid-19th century faced the inevitable life as US Marine where valor is the only food on the table. It is the hippie age where the popular slogans "Make Love Not War" and "Hippie Flower Child" penetrated the airwaves. It allows each reader to take a closer look at the past generation and how the events in the past affected the current setting.