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Henry's Reaction In Fight Or Flight

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"Fight or flight?" Readers wonder what Henry will do throughout the first few chapters of the book. Every time Henry asks another soldier if he will stay and fight or run, readers are left wondering what Henry will do when he is faced with a battle. Henry's reaction in the first battle to fight was influenced by how prepared he, and his regiment were prior to the battle, his fear, and his face to face encounters with dead soldiers. Ironically, these same things also influenced his "Flight," reaction in the second battle.

Being prepared for battle influenced Henry's reaction to stay and fight in the first battle. Henry's regiment knew that they would battle that day and they were prepared. "There was rustling and muttering among the men. …show more content…

In chapter 3, prior to the first battle, Henry is awoken with a kick and finds himself and his comrades running through the forest, while running he encounters a dead soldier for the first time. A dead confederate soldier. "He was dressed in an awkward suit of yellowish-brown. The youth could see that the soles of his shoes had been worn to the thinnest of writing paper, and from a great rent in one the dead foot projected piteously." This encounter gave Henry the impression that the confederate soldiers were poor, and worn out, and that they would be easily defeated. This gives Henry confidence in the Union Army's ability to overtake the rebels. It also gave him the courage to fight. In the short time between battles, Henry was faced with the sight of his own comrades wounded and dead. Although, Henry survived and the union won the battle, he was faced with the reality of war, and that regardless of whether you win or loose some of your friends and comrades will be wounded or dead. "The men dropped here and there like bundles. The captain of the youth's company had ben killed in an early part of the action. His body lay stretched out in a position of resting, but upon his face there was an astonished and sorrowful look, as if some friend had done him and ill turn." "Underfoot there were a few ghastly forms motionless. They lay twisted in fantastic contortions." Being surrounded by …show more content…

In the first battle Henry's fear gets the best of him. As he is sitting and waiting for the first battle to start he is daydreaming, and he is startled when he hears the call that the enemy is coming. "He stood trying to rally his faltering intellect so that he might recollect the moment when he had loaded, but he could not." Henry fears that his gun isn't loaded and that he's not ready. He is frantic as he see's the enemy charging. "Before he was ready to begin, before he had announced to himself that he was about to fight-he threw the obedient, well-balanced rifle into position and fired a first wild shot." Henry recklessly fires the first shot without thinking, without waiting for a command because he is flustered and frantic worried that he isn't ready. This worked in his favor because when he fired that shot he was suddenly freed from his fear and became a part of something larger than himself. He was a member of something bigger and stronger, a machine, and he had the courage to fight. "He became not a man but a member. He felt that something of which he was a part -a regiment, an army, a cause, or a country -was in a crisis. He was welded into a common personality which was dominated by a single desire." In the second battle Henry wasn't prepared and neither were his comrades, he found himself surrounded by

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