Chapter 3

Abstract:The next day Henry and the other soliders rest. During that night, they march across a pontoon bridge to a new camp. The next day they move again to a forest where they stay for a couple more days. Then one morning everyone in Henry's regiment begins running. It seems like they are running towards a battle, but they aren't which is kind of strange. When they got out of the forest, Henry wanted to escape but knew that he couldn't. There are little 'skirmirshers' but not a full out battle. Henry then comes upon a dead soldier. Henry wants to walk around and around the solider and seems really intrigued by the corpse. He then feels like the generals are stupid and do not really know what they are doing. He wants to warn the others about what could come ahead. He also hated the lieutenant because he made him stay in lines and beat him a sword. He thought he was a brute. They then stopped and while they were stopped some soliders started to build little mounds to hide behind. The loud solider then exclaims how he wants to fight while the tall one just stands there and eats, but then he tells the loud one he doesn't really know what he's talking about because he hasn't been a solider for a long time. The regiment then went back on the same course they had come on that morning. Henry then kind of views death as nice because then he thinks he can rest. The loud solider Wilson then gives Henry a package to give to his family because Wilson thinks he will die in the battle.

Response: Henry feels like his is in jail. He uses language like iron laws of tradition holding him in. He also says that he never wanted to go to war in the first place and was 'dragged' into it by the government. Henry's once glorious feelings of the war are diminished because now he uses a lot of negative language when talking about the war and soliders. Henry also says the he feels threatened. It seems like the war has defeated Henry because he does not really care about living and thinks that being dead would be better. Henry is a very confused person who seems to have lost his way. He does not know what to think which scares him even more because he wishes he could be more confident in himself and brave like he thinks soliders should be. He has a lot of internal conflict. Why has Henry had such a change in heart from the time he enlisted until now?