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Soldier's Heart Character Analysis

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Many people hear of the Korean War, or the Vietnam War, but to them wars seem just a part of history, something of a nation’s past, something to be remembered. When people think of war, they do not think of the blood and carnage and sounds of dying men; they think of it as a word, not an experience, and if they do think of the experience of war, it seems muted, not able to touch them. In the time of the Civil War, people think it is going to be a fun adventure, over quickly with few deaths. Charley, the main character of Gary Paulsen’s Soldier’s Heart, believes the same as everyone else, and he doesn’t believe he can come back with soldier’s heart, the mental issues of the men who come back from war scarred from their experiences. A young, …show more content…
Charley kills so many men at Gettysburg, he loses count, and ends up being shot at the end. After the war, which leaves Charley crippled, both physically and mentally, he considers himself old by the things he has seen and how they left his mind. He does not want to start a family because of this, and at the same time he can not hold a job. He says so himself: “He was tired and broken,” (pg. 98). Charley takes secluded picnics by the creek in an attempt to clear his mind of the thoughts of war that cloud his thinking and dirty his mind. He attempts to think of “pretty things”, like the pretty girls and parades prior the war. It doesn’t always work; Charley even contemplates for a second shooting himself with his revolver before he sets it down and tries to think of pretty things. Going to war, Charley looks for adventure, not expecting to come back a young man with a soldier’s heart. Charley leaves for war excited about parades and pretty girls, but by the time the first battle is finished, those things are the last thing on his mind. Throughout the book, Charley experiences things that leaves him scared and unhappy sometimes with just the thought of living. With all the things Charley sees in the war, nothing can change him back to how he used to

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