Soldier's Heart Syndrome

1. Why would so many open-heart programs be launched in the face of a declining market?

One hundred and fifty-six years ago, one of the bloodiest battles ever fought began. The Civil War was a four year battle between the Union, whose goal was to banish slavery, and the Confederacy, who wanted more independence, including the preservation of slavery. The story of William Yarrington perfectly illustrates the typical effects of the Civil War, as he died quite young (after the war) from a disease which he had acquired during his three year term. Of the 620,000 soldiers who died because of the war, the majority passed away from disease, which affected the country in many ways, including the families who suffered from the loss of their family members. Overall, William Yarrington’s experience in the war was quite unique, as he survived

I read Soldier’s Heart, by Gary Paulsen. This story takes place in quite a few settings. A couple of them include Minnesota were Charley (the main character grew up) joined the union to fight in the Civil War. Also, Charley was at the Battle of Bull Run, a battle by Washington D.C., and Gettysburg, as well as the camps that the soldiers stayed in. Charley was fifteen when he joined the Union Army, he said he was ready to be a man, Charley was confident and curious. Charley had a good heart and felt bad for people dying around him. Charley fought against Confederate Rebels, he always wanted to take them out in battle. He got dysentery before his first battle as well. Although he went through a lot his

Post-traumatic stress disorder. Battle fatigue. Shell shock. All of these are names of mental disorders that soldiers come home with. The damage is caused by war. “What they [the soldiers] have seen and been forced to do is frequently so horrific and devastating that it simply cannot be tolerated by the human psyche” (xiii). The consciences of soldiers that participate in war can’t handle what they have seen and done, causing disorders such as the ones above. Soldier’s heart is similar to the aforementioned ailments. During the civil war, “Some men came through combat unscathed. Most did not. These men were somehow different from other men. They were said to have soldier’s heart.” A soldier has soldier’s heart when they come back from war harmed

They would scream, moan, shiver violently whenever guns were fired, and at first the sufferers were seen as cowards, but after some times the doctors realized it was a mental condition and the men were treated. however, some never recovered. Before it was identified as a mental condition,

Men die all around him, bullets and cannons passing straight through their bodies and onto the next victim. The bullets coming from the Confederate’s weapons come so torrentially that, “If he didn’t lie down he would be hit, ripped, torn to pieces,” (pg. 24). When he retreats to the trees, he vomits, sick from what he sees. Charley merely survives his first battle; yet, there are more battles, some even more violent than the first. Between the bouts of fighting, he works to survive camp life, but many others die of disease during winter.

To begin, a contrast between the two texts have is the amount of detail of the battle at Bull Run. Soldier’s Heart contains delineate detail in its writing as the protagonist, Charley Goddard, fights in the Bull Run battle. In the book, Charley witnesses thousands of young and old men dying in front of his eyes, the sounds of steel, metal bullets cutting through the air, blood gushing and pouring out of the soldier’s bodies, and much more. The article, however, only reviews content about the Confederate victory over the Union and its chaotic battle plan, as well as significant figures of the Civil War (i.e. President Lincoln, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, General McDowell). It does not go into detail about how many men died at the Battle of Bull Run, nor the violence that took place. Another aspect that “The Battle of Bull Run” and Soldier’s Heart does not share is the dates. As expected from a non-fictional text, “The Battle of Bull Run” includes the dates in which the Bull Run battle occurred. For example, it mentions the date, July 21, 1861, as the day when the South and North clashed and fought, and July 22, 1861, as the day when the South crushed the North. Unlike “The Battle of Bull Run,” Soldier’s Heart does not mention any specific dates or times since it is more focused on the detail of the battle. Even though Soldier’s Heart and

Some historians believed that most of Civil War soldiers were unaware of why they were fighting. However, it has been found that in soldiers ' letters and diaries that soldiers did have a sense of the ideological ideas that caused the war. Troops on both sides of the war were very aware of the issues that were at stake, and it concerned them greatly. This was a civil war that would define the fate of a nation or even two. This war would shape American society and each person in it. "Civil War soldiers lived in the world’s most politicized and democratic country in the mid-nineteenth century. They had come of age in the 1850s when highly charged partisan and ideological debates consumed the American polity”. (pg 92) Men enlisted in the war for not only patriotic reasons but also ideological; these beliefs did not vanish after becoming a soldier. “The spread-eagle speeches they heard at recruiting rallies merely reinforced the ideas they had absorbed from the political culture in which they had grown up. And their army experiences reinforced these ideas even more powerfully.” (pg 92) Men not only heard the speeches but also read what was printed in

In the book Soldier’s Heart by Gary Paulsen, Charley Goddard says, “I have got to become a man sometime.” Charley, a boy about 15 years old, lives on a farm with his ma, and his little brother Oran. His dad will not come around anymore because he gets kicked to death by a horse that goes mad.The horse goes mad because a bee lands on it. Charley wants to me a man and grow up, so he continues to ask his ma if he can join the army. His ma lets him join the army because she thinks the war will quickly come to an end, but little does she know it will not. Charley joins the war, and comes out with a soldier’s heart. A soldier’s heart represents the soldiers that come home looking different or acting different from when they first left. Also known as PTSD, which goes by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Charley develops from a boy looking for adventure into a young man with a “soldier’s heart” because he

This quote explains the physical dangers of war. Along with that, it shows detailed imagery of a violent bombardment. "It has reinforced us with dullness so that we do not go to pieces before the horror, which would overwhelm us if we had clear, conscious thought" (274). This quote explains the psychological part of war. The soldiers are breaking to pieces over the horrors of war, but the adrenaline has left them without

In the Civil War, we know that slaves were colored people that were fighting for there freedom. They had no rights, they were property. They were mistreated and uneducated objects, to most. Charley Goddard was the protagonist of the story Soldier’s Heart, and he was fighting for the freedom of the slaves.

The Civil War, World War I, the Vietnam War, World War II, and the conflict in the Middle East are all wars that have been fought over the difference of opinions, yet come at the cost of the soldier's fighting for those opinions; Humans killing other humans, and death is just one of the many emotional scars soldiers face in war. Why, then, do we go to war when mental health is the cost? Many readers would disagree that the Vietnam War changed the view soldiers had on the world. Most would see the war as just senseless violence or a noble cause in the name of freedom. However, they are unaware of the changes war has on soldiers' perceptions of life.

The reasons that motivated people to pick up arms and fight were as different as the people who were doing the fighting. When asked by a Union officer a Southern P.O.W. answered “… Why they were fighting this war…[he responded]… They was fighting for their rats… It finally dawned on us that what the feller meant was their rights.”(Page 170-171). Another Southern gave this analogy “… it’s as if we all joined a gentlemen’s club, and then the members of the club started sticking their noses into our private lives, and then

The doctors didn’t know much about diseases or mental illnesses before the Civil War. They were able to learn a lot including what the soldier got sick from along with finding out how the brain actually works when it came to big trauma such as being in a large war for such a long period of time. During the civil war, there wasn’t much knowledge on how the soldiers should be medically taken care of. Doctors did not require much schooling in order to become a doctor and treat patients. A lot of the doctors had never learner or seen how to

Soldiers of the American Civil War were overwhelmed by a time where weaponry and technological developments were thriving. This brutal war changed the soldiers, both mentally and physically, and continued to have an impact throughout their entire lives. There were not only many deaths during the war, but also prior to the war as many soldiers took their own life. They would experience disturbing thoughts and events in their mind that could not be explained until they became known as mental illnesses. The exploration of psychological disorders following the Civil War improved medical diagnostic tools and the way patients were treated which transformed the treatment of mental illness by creating new ways of discovering illnesses, treating patients, and developing the foundation for the future of psychology throughout America.