Foley realized that Mayo had a lot of anger in him and was making stupid decisions because of that, he needed a outlet for all that steam, and Foley provided the outlet. After the fight it was up to Mayo to choose his path.
This is what was really going on.
An officer is a military leader. Foley's job is to weed out those who can't hack it as an officer, a leader. It's an important job because people's lives in combat are dependent on the quality of the leaders and Foley takes his job seriously.
Foley rightly pegs Mayo as a lowlife loner from the outset -- a wannabe officer -- and therefore puts on the pressure. This is especially so on the one weekend where he has Mayo to himself. Foley does everything he can to make Mayo break AND quit, but he doesn't. Mayo breaks, but he refuses to quit on the grounds that he has no where to go. At the end of this scene you see that Foley develops respect for Mayo (which you get a glimpse of earlier when Mayo does extremely well on the obstacle course).
Later, Mayo disregards breaking the record on the obstacle course (which he was definitely able to do) in order to encourage Seegar (the female recruit) to finally makes it over the wall. Foley sees that Mayo's no longer the aloof and selfish loner he was when he rode in on his motorcyle. He's matured; he's developed character. It was already there, but the boot camp training has brought it to the surface, and Foley sees it.
After Worley's death, Mayo confronts Foley while he's drilling the platoon. Foley informs Mayo that they all know what happened and even tells him they're sorry about Worley. He didn't have to do this and it shows that Foley isn't just an honorable man, but that he also cared about Worley. After all, Worley was only one week away from graduating! In a sense, he was one of Foley's kids. But Mayo's crazy with shock & grief at this point and says he's going to quit, to which Foley tells him to meet him for the fight. Sure, there's some testosterone in his words, but he actually does this out of respect for Mayo as a last ditch effort to keep him from dropping out.
And Foley didn't "kick his ass", as some posters claim. It was essentially an even match and Foley barely walks off the mat, which is the only reason he technically wins. But that's inconsequential. The purpose of the fight was to run Mayo's steam out so he didn't make a rash decision in a moment of grief & anger. Foley accomplished his purpose. Once Mayo was no longer blinded by rage he makes the right choice and graduates.
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HansieDZ
10 years ago
Perfect summation! Well written Wuchakk!
"Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"
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Huskie_Jon
10 years ago
That was a good explaination from Foley's point of view, but it takes two to tango.
Mayo really wanted to help his friend Worley graduate just as Worley helped him get through that aviation physics class. Worley's DOR and subsequent death ruined those plans. Mayo previously endurred a weekend putting up with Foley's abuse, with Foley trying to personally get Mayo to DOR. I think Mayo thought Foley found a new target in Worley and that Foley pushed Worley to DOR the same way he tried to get Mayo to do it. He may have even thought Foley did it to get back at Mayo.
When Foley told Mayo that he heard about Worley, Foley did not sound very broken up about it. I think that caused Mayo to focus all his rage at Foley and challenge him.
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