49 pages • 1 hour read
Tom ClancyThe Hunt for Red October
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1984A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Mutual Distrust between Soviet Leaders and Subordinates
The lack of trust Soviet leaders have in their subordinates is mentioned multiple times throughout the novel. This theme first appears when Ramius is waiting with the political officer to open their orders on the maiden voyage of ballistic missile submarine Red October:
The crew of such vessels had to be trusted. And so they sailed less often than their Western counterparts, and when they did it was with a political officer aboard to stand next to the commanding officer, a second captain always ready to pass approval on every action (25).
This statement shows Ramius’s understanding that his country’s leaders don’t trust that their trained Navy men won’t take these heavily armed submarines and use them against the Soviet Union in some fashion. This lack of trust not only leads to a sense of rebelliousness among the people but also causes difficulties in career advancement, as the party officials will not promote someone who has a history that could suggest a lack of loyalty. This lack of career advancement often leaves citizens without simple luxuries such as a home or car of their own. In turn, the lack of trust shown to the Soviet Union’s citizens causes dissatisfaction among those who feel they’ve been unfairly punished and promotes a lack of trust of the citizens toward their leaders.
Ramius uses this lack of trust to exact revenge on his superiors after the preventable death of his wife, Natalia. He questioned the practices of the Communist Party and his country’s leaders most of his life because of his upbringing by his Lithuanian grandmother and the things he witnessed happening to his friend, disgraced Navy officer Sasha. These experiences allowed Ramius to develop as an independent thinker, questioning the things he was taught at school or by his father. He chose to advance his career by appearing to be a good party member, but he pursued other thoughts in the privacy of his home, an internal conflict he accepted until Natalia’s death. Afterward, Ramius wanted justice for her death, and the culpable entities were the Communist Party and the Soviet government. He gathered around him a group of officers who shared his private thoughts on the government, men who were punished for various offenses, some of which were not their fault, that stalled their careers. He chose them to serve with him on Red October so that they could plan together to defect to the US and to take Red October as a gift to the Americans. Without this lack of trust and this party’s habit of punishing its citizens for reasons as arbitrary as their ethnicity or because they “wanted him to be an engineer (67)” but he wanted to be a commander, Ramius’s desire to defect and his plan to do so would not have been as effective.
Lifestyle Differences: The US versus the Soviet Union in the 1980s
The novel is set in 1984; therefore, there are some cultural differences from the present time. However, those living in the US enjoyed basic freedoms that were the norm then, as they are now. Citizens were allowed to own homes and cars as long as they had the money to do so. US residents could come and go at all hours of the day and night. If a man desired to be a commander of a submarine, he had to have the right education and work hard to achieve the required promotions but could keep his political ideas separate from this process. In the US, television was not severely censored, movies were available to anyone who wanted to pay for the ticket to see them, and computers—even in 1984—were available for a common citizen to purchase. These are all basic rights that American citizens continue to take for granted. This was not true of the Soviet Union, which existed from 1922 until 1991.
In the Soviet Union, citizens’ rights were severely restricted for a variety of reasons and in a variety of ways. Most items that Americans take for granted, such as refrigerators and cars, could be bought in the Soviet Union only after a long waiting period and with such restrictive rules that many went without them. There were curfews for people of all ages, and citizens were required to carry papers to show their identities whenever law enforcement approached them. The Communist Party was the only political party in the Soviet Union, and those who chose not to be loyal members were often punished in many ways, including a lack of career advancement and an inability to get on lists to buy things like appliances, cars, and homes.
In this novel, these differences become an important theme when the Soviet officers on Red October meet their American counterparts and begin learning some of their customs. At one point, Jones provides a television and some movies, including ET. The Soviets are fascinated by the behavior of the children in the movie and wonder if all American children are so rebellious. At another point, one of the officers asks Jones how he knows so much about computers. When he tells him he can buy his own computer, the officer responds, “A working man with his own computer? It is hard to believe” (585). He was shocked by something that was pricey yet attainable for many working people in the US at that time. This theme underscores the desire of these men to defect and find a better life in a new country.
Political Adversity During the Cold War (1945-91)
The Cold War created tension between the US and the Soviet Union, the two global superpowers. Both countries had the technology and weaponry—including nuclear capabilities—to enter into a war that could have brought on global disaster. For this reason, each was constantly on alert against the other, leading to several crises that impacted the behavior of not just each country’s government but also of her people. For example, the Cuban Missile Crisis left the American people on edge for 35 days; many of them installed bomb shelters in their homes because of nuclear weapons the Soviet Union parked 90 miles off the US coast in Cuba.
In this novel, these tensions become a theme when the Soviet Union sends almost its entire naval fleet rushing toward the US coast in an attempt to stop the Red October’s crew from defecting. The Soviets lie to the US President, claiming they are searching for a missing submarine rather than admitting one of their top submarine captains is attempting to defect. At the same time, the US uses a known traitor to feed information to the Soviet Union that Polish spies set Ramius up to make it appear he was defecting to cause a conflict between the Soviet Union and the US. Both countries lie to each other to protect their resources and to avoid conflict. The Soviet ships’ coming so close to the coast of the US ratchets up the tension between the two countries because of the risk that a pilot or ship’s captain might lose his temper and fire on the other country’s ships or planes. This very thing happens in Chapter 10 when “the sonic booms they trailed sounding just like explosions” (335) cause a Soviet pilot to fire four missiles at retreating American planes.
Throughout the mission to find Red October, there is the chance that a war could begin. The movement of the Soviet Naval Fleet could cause the US President to order his ships to fire on the Soviets. The Soviet pilot who fired on the Tomcats could have caused the American planes to fire back. At another point, the political officer aboard the Soviet aircraft carrier Kiev encourages the captain to attack the American ships, claiming, “Some will call this cowardice” (363), when the captain refuses. Any of these incidents could lead to war between the two countries, war that likely would result in nuclear attacks. However, diplomacy and intelligence prevent that despite the political adversity between these two countries.
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By Tom Clancy
