"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.
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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
Henry fled from the second battle because he did not fully understand the responsibility of being at war. He was just a boy trying to do what’s right. Angst and inner conflict welled within his conscience from participating in the first battle, but the lieutenant of his regiment filled his and his comrades’ spirit full of false security and bravery, making the first battle easier to bear.
Henry feels he's overcome his fears, until the enemy charges again. Henry, no longer feeling part of the team, pictures the enemy as super human soldiers about to trample him. He runs. He overhears generals celebrating their victory. Chapter 7 Henry resents the victory, accusing his fellow soldiers of being stupid and lucky.
Henry fights along with the other soldiers in the first battle, yet he flees from the scene when the second battle ensues. Henry had a confusing opinion about the battles being fought. He believed that the first battle was a sure fire win and that the second battle was a complicated one to win. The battles were both very different.
But in the second battle Henry flees from his comrades while they held the line as the rebels tried to push them out. The regiment ended up being the victors of the second battle too. But Henry was worried about what the other soldiers would say to him since he ran away from the battle. I believe Henry was always afraid of battle even before it started and when the enemy came sprinting towards him he was shocked and started to flee.
Henry’s confidence does not last for a long time. The realities of the battle become a reality and cause his fear and doubt to reappear. Henry goes from being happy because he was able to fight the enemy in the first battle to being anxious at the beginning of a second
First, Henry might have been scared. He saw what happened in the first battle and it affected him in a way it didn't the others. This was the first time he fought in a war or battle with other men. He made friends with some of the soldiers in his regiment. If he stuck
When faced with adversities early into his first battle, he quickly reconsidered his views on war and courage. By running away from the face of battle, Henry “saw his vivid error, and he was afraid that it would stand before him all his life” (Cane 24.30). This pushed him into believing that he would never be a man of courage of masculinity. This “error” of running away caused Henry to be angry at himself for mistakenly thinking the battle was over and abandoning his fellow soldiers. While away from the battle Henry discovers “that he had a scorching thirst” and “his body was calling for food” (Cane 11.21). From the struggle of war and the experience of Wilson, Henry learns to reflect upon his life and learn from his mistakes, rather than being angry at himself. This allowed Henry to be influenced by the culture around him, shaping him into acknowledging that courage was not depicted by a gunshot or a wound, but by the act of adhering to the line of duty and learning from your
In the book, they are celebrating their victory, when they notice the confederates are coming back with another attack. They were not prepared for this battle. As soon as he saw the confederates approaching, he forget he was apart of the team. He became more focused on how committed the confederates were. Henry thought to himself, "They must be machines of steel. It was very gloomy struggling against such affairs, wounded perhaps to fight until sundown." In this quote, Henry focuses on how strong the other army is. He forgets the importance of working together with his regiments to put them
Henry’s impetus action foregrounds his immaturity as he ‘didn’t consider’ the decision fully, not acknowledging the risk involved. This immaturity is in stark contrast to the steadfast, resolute behaviour exhibited by the soldiers through the novel on countless occasions. Henry showed a careless and unnecessary disregard for his own safety, unlike that of the soldiers where their risk-taking was
When the men regroup for the second attack, many of the Union soldiers around henry begin to run away. Henry gives into the pressure and joins in the retreat, he wasn’t prepared for the horror that war brings. As he’s running, he seems to observe everyone else around him. He sees his captain lying stretched on the ground, dead, the babbling man was grazed by a shot to the head, and another man grunted as he was struck in the stomach, along with many others that just started dropping to the ground. As Henry ran, he feared for his life that he was going to be struck in the back, but he continued running. The thought of self-preservation seemed more important to him than fighting with selflessness and bravery along with the other
Moving closer to the battle, Henry, the rookie private with a lack of self-confidence and courage, starts thinking if he should run away from a battle or fight in the battle. With a lack of war experience, he feels insecure going to battle and does not know what to do. He starts to ask his fellow soldiers on their thoughts and opinions about running away from a battle as he felt cowardliness of doing so. He also asked one
First, one should focus on the language and Henry's ethos. The soldiers are burdened with the thought of a
“The Youth,” which Henry is referred to as, dreamt of glory in battle and being a hero (Crane 2). That is the reason why Henry enlisted himself; even though he told his comrades he was forced to be in the army. His mother’s farewell speech is ironic because he thought that she would give him a tearful and long speech, but all she really said was to “Watch out, and be a good boy” (4). She does not want Henry to be a hero even though that is what he went to war for. She told Henry that she will be fine if he does not return home. Henry tries to pull off being a confident and good soldier, while in the reality he is very nervous about what will happen in battle. Throughout the novel, he questions his courage and if he would run from battle. At an early battle, Henry continuously fires at the enemy line and feels like he is a courageous soldier. However, soon after this battle, another one erupts and Henry runs from it. This is
He described that he couldn’t escape even if he wanted to. Through this analogy, the reader can see that Henry is reducing the soldiers to unthinking, unfeeling machines, performing their duty without taking into account the threat of injury or death. As he looks around at the faces of the rest of the soldiers in his regiment, he notices their focused commitment to the firing of their rifles. He wonders if he is the only one faced with questions of morality. While the regiment began to advance, Henry was shocked to receive a packet of letters from Wilson, who feared he would die in battle. After the battle, he is glad that he made it through the first day. He begins to lose the romantic vision of war by seeing the realities, but he starts lying to himself about who is really is.
Henry's fears take over, and his only way to achieve his self comfort again is to run away from the battle. Henry uses the forest to calm himself. The forest is where he begins to overcome his selfish ways, he reflects back on the battle and the men, and starts to believe that he can be of help to one or more of the men in the regiment. Henry eventually wins over the fear and joins with another regiment to fight against the rebels.