17th-century 1970s action adrenaline adventure aerial-combat aerial-warfare african-american african-american-experience african-american-literature air-combat air-force alienation alternate-history ambition american-dream american-history american-literature apostasy army aviation baseball battle belief betrayal black-experience bravery brotherhood brutality camaraderie career career-ending-injury catholicism character-driven childhood childhood-hero christianity civil-rights classic-literature colonialism combat coming-of-age competition comradeship conflict conversion courage cultural-assimilation cultural-clash cultural-identity culture-clash danger death determination discrimination doubt drama dreams duty dystopia dystopian dystopian-future emotional evolution existentialism exploration failure faith fame family father-son-relationship fear fiction fighter-jets fighter-pilots forgiveness friendship future future-society gripping harlem harlem-renaissance healing helicopter heroism historical honor hope humanity identity identity-crisis imagination individualism individuality infantry injury intense introspection invisibility james japan japanese-literature jazz jesuits jungle jungle-warfare justice leadership legacy literary-fiction literature loss love loyalty major-league-baseball marine-corps marines martyrdom masculinity military military-fiction missionaries missionary moral-dilemma morality nostalgia novel obsession oppression passion pearl-harbor persecution perseverance philosophical pilots pitcher politics power power-dynamics prejudice professional-athlete professional-sports psychological ptsd race racism reconciliation redemption regret relationships religion religious-conflict religious-persecution resilience rivalry romance sacrifice salter science-fiction second-chances secrets segregation self-discovery shusaku-endo silence silence-of-god social-commentary social-inequality social-injustice society soldiers speculative-fiction spirituality sports struggle success suffering survival suspense suspenseful symbolism talent technology the-hunters thrill time-travel tragedy trauma triumph underdog utopia victorian-era vietnam vietnam-veterans vietnam-war violence war war-fiction war-novel world-war-ii