Soldier's Heart Syndrome

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

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

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.

In Gary Paulsen's book Soldier's heart we meet Charley Goddard.He is 15 years old. He was a farmer in Minnesota before he went into the war.In the war people were being killed.Some died in the stream that Charley had drunk from.I am 13 years old. I live in Arkansas. I work on a pig farm. I help feed and water the pigs.Charley thought that the war war gonna be fun.He thought it was hard and risky. In the middle of war Charley was sure he was going to die.After he saw Nelson shot he could see himself. He cried because he loaded the gun so Nelson could shoot himself.War is a challenge for Charley.You have to be a cold killer. Charley knew he would die at any time.That was not a very good feeling.War is not easy you have to be mean and tough.It

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.

Perhaps attesting to the enhanced understanding of PTSD and alarm at the troubling suicide rates of veterans, the media seems to be raising the public’s attention about the condition, for example, through the use of documentaries. In 2005, during the second push of the Iraqi and Afghanistan war PBS FRONTLINE released a documentary entitled, “The Soldier’s Heart,” This documentary gives an overview of the history of PTSD, but focuses specifically on the psychological toll of the Iraq war. It illuminates the fact that despite advances in our understanding of PTSD, there continues to be a stigma against psychological problems in the

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

Dr. Jacob Mendez Da Costa, a physician during the Civil War, ran studies on many wounded Union soldiers. He discovered that they had rapid heart rates and high blood pressure combined with severe exhaustion and the ability to be easily startled. Though PTSD was yet a known disorder, it was clear that the men’s symptoms were caused because of the disturbing things they had seen and experienced in battle.(Thomas 10)

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.