Soldier X

While names are typically, though not always, critical to establishing the identity of characters in written works, Soldier X expands on this characterization method by interrogating what happens when names fail or otherwise stop representing who one truly is. Names serve as a marker of personhood and individuality, yet through the titular X and others, the novel reminds the audience that these in themselves are privileges. World War II created many other markers of identity, such as uniforms, which erase personal identity and value, replacing all people, no matter how loyal, with caricatures of themselves and what they represent to the regimes of power.

While X is the strongest example of this theme, he is not the only one who loses themselves to the ripple effects of violence and political regimes. Although the Jewish prisoners are only present briefly, their appearance is a reminder of the violence and erasure of the Holocaust. The prisoners have no names but wear stars on their uniforms to communicate that they are Jewish. In this way, Nazi Germany replaced their names with a new marker: their Jewishness, represented in this way as a bad or inferior thing.