Anthony's Way

A monologue I created that was focused on the protagonist of the movie "Dead Presidents", Anthony Curtis. Anthony is in the Vietnam War and he is thinking about were he wants to be in life and how the life he is living is affecting him.

 

It is a muggy summer night of 1971 in the Quang Tri Province of Vietnam. American soldiers stationed in Vietnam are quartered in their tents resting, writing letters to loved ones, or just killing time in their own way. Anthony Curtis is in his tent sitting at his little table as the sounds of The Impressions’ “Man oh Man (I want to go back)” pour out of the speakers of the radio. He sits there with a letter in front of him and begins to contemplate about his place in his life and where he wants to be.

 

(Anthony fondles a letter in his hand, glancing over it momentarily) Man, I got more than I bargained for. People make becoming a war hero and fighting for the pride and glory of your country so much more exciting than it really is. I didn’t expect it to be like this. (Anthony sighs) I volunteered for Force Recon. We really experienced the horrors of war there. My buddy skip just joined me. (He chuckles) Seems that ol’ Skip flunked out of Harper College. I knew it was too good to be true for him, but what other choices does he have now?   He’s taking it a lot harder than I am. I keep telling him about those drugs and that heroin he’s been into, but he ain’t listenin’. That boy sho’ does have a hard head. Me and Skip go way back and he ain’t changed one bit. All I know is I can’t get attached to anybody out here and I can’t think about what’s happening at home and the rest of the world, cause the moment I do I’mma dead man.

 

I mean, you can’t let your guard down out here either and make any friends. You might as well let go of that thought already, all you doin’ is settin’ yourself up. Half of the men you start off with will never come back. Hell, we lost several fellow Marines today during combat. But hey, you can tell the practice of killing has been instilled in us deeply. Some of it is so deep that some of these dudes show their crazy sides. Just today after executing enemy prisoners, ol’ Cleon took a machete and beheaded a corpse of a Viet Cong soldier. He’s crazy, that’s all I can say. Cleon claimed that he was taking himself back a souvenir. He carried that damn decomposing head everywhere with us, he said it was our good luck charm (Anthony adjusts in his chair, rubs his chin, and ponders for a brief second).

 

(A draft of wind blows and Anthony shakes his head, sighs heavily, and lowers his tone) I don’t know…as soon as Dugan ordered Cleon to bury the head, a little while later we found D’ambrosio…he was disemboweled and had been castrated all while he was alive (A gloomy expression shows on Anthony’s face as he sits in a daze).

 

Man, he couldn’t have gone home like that, he would’ve never recovered, what could he do? I had to do it for D’ambrosio, he wanted me to do so for him. I did it only for him, man. (A moment of silence passes) Damn.

 

(Anthony pushes away a photo of a child without looking at it) I just can’t think about her right now…I can’t even look at her. I’m in what I’m in and that’s it. I gotta go out there like every battle is my last and that I have nothing to loose, you know what I mean? Yea, in reality I know I have a lot to loose and I do love my child, but they don’t exist right here. I’m not in the real world now and until then my worries for everything back home has to be put on hold. That’s how I survived 26 months in the bushes and that’s how I will continue to survive.

 

(Anthony tosses the letter aside and picks up a warning flyer and reads the title aloud) ‘Black man go home, this isn’t your war’. (There is a momentary silence as he continues to glance over the flyer. Then he begins to examine his surroundings from the tent itself, to the canteen, to his cot) Hmph, why am I here and really what for? I never even came to think about what’s my purpose in this war. I made my decision not to go to college, but why am I in here? I thought by enlisting in the Marine Corps it would be a chance for me to get away from home and give me time to find myself. Yea, I found myself. I found more things than I really wanted to find.

 

(Anthony sips out of his beer bottle and then places it down on the table) Two tours…two tours of duty and attained the rank of sergeant. I’ve proved enough of myself. I found myself and I served my country with honor. What more is there left of me to give? I think it’s time for me to start getting back to the real world and start planning the next stage of my life.

 

I survived out here and I’ve seen it all. Only thing is…what am I gon’ do to survive in the real world and what am I to expect after all these years? (The scene ends with the song “I miss you” by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes playing quietly from the stereo. Anthony lies the paper down, grasps for his beer bottle and drinks out of it. He puts his bottle down and then bows his head. The stage light then dims).

Author's Note

Please comment and tell me what you think.

Reviews

[Farrah Grahm]

This is beautiful and terribly sad.
So, Anthony was forced to kill D'ambrosio? Cleon turned out to be quite a sicko, didn't he? I only take this to mean that he must've been the culprit.
Beautifully, beautifully, beautifully written. Absolutely beautiful. I mean, you took a very sad and tragic situation and didn't lay it on too thick, and this works perfectly as a monologue because it's written as we speak, not exactly following a straight and narrow line of thought, but rather jumping around a bit.
and the subject matter is very serious but very insightful for your age, it makes me wonder have you had some personal experience with the military, maybe had a relative who fought that war?
You also slipped in a very big part of our history, the prejudice that blacks experienced when fighting this war, especially what they had to face when they came back. of course, you're character only is anxious about coming back, but seems to very well have picked up the notion that there would be prejudice to fast on his return.
All in all, this is a great piece and would look great on stage. Great job.