Abstract: Henry feel disgusted with himself because he ran away during the battle. He doesn't celebrate when the other soliders are after they have won. He thought that he was smart to have saved himself by fleeing but thus was not a part of the army. He thought that if everyone fled, then there would not be an army. He also thinks though that the other soliders were fools to stay and should have protected themselves. He knew that he would be ridiculed when he came back to camp. While he was still retreating, he notices a squirrel running away from him. He then reasons that it is only natural that he ran away to save his life. In a thicket, he comes upon a dead man. Henry screamed when he saw him because he was scared. He was a Union solider who was pretty much rotting and had ants crawling on him. He then continued to retreat all the while looking at it so to be sure that it wouldn't get up.
Response: It is odd the language Crane uses when describing the place that the dead soldier is in. He says that it is a chapel. Why does he do that? Maybe he used chapel because it was the final resting place of the solider, and many people's funerals are held in chapels. He could have also used it because a church is someplace where people are happy, and Henry and maybe the dead solider were maybe happiest when dead having to no longer think and worry about war and ensuing battles. I think Henry is going to become even more fearful after seeing the dead solider. He probably won't want to come back because he truly stared death in the face and was terrified. He couldn't turn his back on the corpse because he was afraid that it would get up.
Theme: self-perservance Henry only carries about himself and not the army or anyone else.
Symbol: Dead solider. He represented the death of freedom because he was free.
No comments:
Post a Comment