War Crimes

" I was deposited on to the streets of New York, restored to the mainstream of life. I took several steps down the sidewalk when something happened. It was not guilt that froze me; I had taught myself never to feel guilt. It wasn't the fear of death; I had taught myself to think of death as a friend. It was not the thought of being unloved that froze me; I had taught myself to do without love. What froze me was the fact that I had absolutely no reason to move in any direction."

Much like Slaughterhouse Five, Mother Night also concerns itself with the atrocities of war and how it can change those who are inextricably involved in it. Howard Campbell Jr., having just only just arrived from Germany, is now uncertain of where he stands in the world. War has taught him how to disguise his true self, how to mask him emotions, leaving him somewhat confused and lost. Now, he is left with daunting task of defining himself and his purpose, in addition to reconciling his identity with his actions and the questionable role that he played in the war. Campbell's true self has become both lost and irrelevant, in a sense, because of his role as a both an American spy and a notorious Nazi propagandist. He has difficulty in evaluating the true intent behind his actions in the war, and he is left as a shell of a human being, one dazed on the streets of New York with "no reason to move in any direction."

Should Campbell be held responsible for the part that he played in the war, even if he was just playing the role that he was casted? Do you think that his intentions were pure?