“Smiling Bones” engages with the long-standing tradition of faceless memorialization. For centuries, it has shaped the image of the fallen as part of a whole — silent, equal among equals. Uniform rows of graves, standardized grave markers, and collective symbols in place of individual stories have constructed an understanding of shared experience in which individuality gives way to the collective. The “quiet strength” and “stoic collectivism” often used to describe this perspective imply the absence of deviation, emotional instability, or heightened sensitivity — anything that does not fit within the generalized image of the hero.