A Few Good Men

The characters in A Few Good Men are members of the US military. Their uniforms symbolize their investment in the military as an institution, allowing them to visibly indicate their pride at representing the Marines or the Navy. The uniform represents the characters’ membership in the military. Civilians are not permitted to wear the uniforms, so characters from a broad ideological range are symbolically linked by sharing the same uniform. Jessup, Kaffee, Galloway, and Markinson view the world differently but are symbolically united by sharing the uniform of the US military.

While most characters wear the uniform to symbolize their membership in the institution of the military, Markinson uses it to reflect on his past. He feels guilt at his involvement in Santiago’s death, believing that his failure to push back against Jessup’s violent tactics made such a tragedy inevitable. He condemns himself for this inaction but also blames the military for its failure to provide oversight. Markinson decides to kill himself, believing that this decisive gesture is the only way to alleviate his guilt. To highlight the military’s inaction, he dresses in his full uniform before shooting himself in the head, symbolically condemning both the institution and himself.