Themes Motifs and Symbols

Themes:

Courage-Henry had no courage during the beginning of the book and then towards the end he built himself up and fought during the war in the end and was one of the greatest soldiers.

Manhood-When Henry enters the war he was young and inexperienced but towards the end of the book he developed his manhood and became a very good soldier and a very good fighter!

Self-preservation-In the beginning Henry never wanted to fight in any of the battles because he was afraid of dying and leaving his mother behind.

Disregard for Human Life-You must forget about your own life that you were living before you came to the war and while your fighting for your country you must just worry about winning the battle.

Motifs:

Noise and Silence-I think that noise represents that there's a battle going on with all of the guns firing. The silence would represent those soldiers who died for their country while fighting in a battle.

Light and Dark-Light and Dark is kind of like Noise and Silence. Dark represents the noise and all the fighting that went on. The light represents the quietness and the feeling of winning. The example that showed this would be like at the end of the book when the light shinned through the clouds down onto the mountain.

Clean and Dirty-At the beginning of the book Henry wanted to keep all of his valuables clean and didn't want them to get dirty. But then when he met the tattered soldier and noticed the red badge of courage he kinda dropped his spell of being a neat freak and didn't care if he had to get down and dirty he was going to fight for his country.

Youth and Maturity-Henry was very scared at the beginning of the book and never wanted to fight, which meant he always ran from the battles and went to go hide. At the end of the book Henry was mature and wanted to fight in the battle never gave up always thought that they could win and never doubted his fellow soldiers. And he always wanted to be the one on top but he had to go through the youth stage to build himself up to the mature level.

Symbols:

The Dead Soldier-The dead soldier represents how bad war could have been if you fought as hard as you could. It also represents how when soldiers sign up to be in the war they are kind of signing their life away because you never no what can happen at any one moment. By signing their life away that means they could just leave their family behind. An example would be like when Wilson gave Henry his yellow envelope that had a letter to his family if he didn't make it through the war.

The Flag-The flag for Henry's group/army was showing pride in their country and it motivated them to keep fighting until they fought their enemies off. It also reminded the men what they were actually fighting for and that it wasn't for no reason. It kept them going for instance when Henry and Wilson went and picked it up because they didn't want it to lay on the ground for the rest of the battle because that was disrespectful. Also the enemies flag was a big deal at the end of the book because the rebels flag holder got shot and went down so it was a mishon to Henry that he had to go get that flag and he thought that it was an accomplishment to get it. In capturing the flag they found that it made them even more proud of one another. It also represented that they had won and it was a victory after they captured the enemies flag!!!