Generals Die in Bed by Charles Yale Harrison: An Overview

Harrisons novel “Generals Die in Bed” is narrated by an anonymous soldier stationed in the infamous trenches of Globe War 1. The soldier tells of the slaughterhouse of war with horrific and uncompromising description. Throughout the text there are a few situations of heroism and gory such as the protagonists acts of bravery in a evening time raid and heroic work of the males to endure and maintain their humanities in the intolerable circumstances they had been placed in. However, the resonating theme all through the novel is that war is a place of horror and death not glory, this is very first depicted the contrast in between the feeling of the guys in the first chapter of the book which rapidly dissipates into one particular of “insane fear” following the very first bombardment and then by the sentiment of the men that it the lice and the officers who are the genuine enemy not their German opponents.

The most apparent instance in the text of heroism is perhaps when the soldier conducts a evening time raid in enemy lines. While conducting the raid the narrator confronts a German and stabs the German in the ribs, with the bayonet on the finish of his rifle. The narrator attempts to withdraw his blade but finds it is stuck, he then runs down the enemy trench of not being capable to stand the sight of the if the wound that he produced. Realizing that he is defenseless he sums up adequate courage to return and retrieve his rifle. Following the occasion the protagonist proudly declares that he has “been tested and found wanting.” This statement clearly demonstrates the worth that the narrator locations in heroism and glory and shows that there is a little spot for glory in war.

The bravery of the males in their heroic struggle to endure, sustain their humanity and appreciate the modest pleasures in life is both admirable and heroic. In the horrible conditions they have been placed in it was not uncommon for men to go insane and give up. Below such conditions Renaud’s, a young French recruit who experiences stomach pains, fight to maintain marching and the soldiers refusal to give up when attempting to attain the crest in the last battle that he fight are exceptional feats of heroism. Heroism is also displayed by the males in their struggle to preserve their basic humanity by fulfilling futile tasks like killing the lice even though they know that they will return to maintain some from of hygiene, their capacity appreciating the pleasant smell of beans blossoming and in basic the pleasure they uncover in the modest comforts of life like clean sheets and a excellent wine. Even so these glimpses of heroism are couple of and most of the novel is dominated by the brutality, death and discomfort that is triggered by war.

The lack of glory and heroism that dominates “Generals Die in Bed” is highlighted by the contrast of the men’s attitude in the first chapter of the novel to that following they expertise their very first bombardment. The novel opens describing the barracks of the new recruits who sing “with mock pathos I don’t want to die.” The novel then abruptly skips to the men’s initial expertise of the trenches in which the protagonist stand just before his lewis gun and imagines an action which, he states, makes him “feel elated.” This attitude of war getting a spot of glory and heroism full of joviality is rapidly dispelled soon after the guys encounter a bombardment which causes them to “borrow into the ground like frightened rats,” liquefies their bowls and causes them to expertise an “insane worry that keeps [them] cowering.” The notion of glory in war is further dispelled by the horrible conditions that the guys of Globe War 1 have been forced to endure.

The myth of war getting glorious is additional dispelled by the descriptions of the horrible squalor that the guys had to endure and the unpatriotic stance that the guys take on the war eradicates any patriotic notion that dying for ones country is heroic and glorious. The guys live in vermin infested trenches and can not cleans themselves of the mud that surrounds them. They “never refer to the Germans as [their] enemy” and the guys do not know “what the hell [they] are fighting for anyhow.” Rather the “traditional enemy” becomes the army police who are sent to round up the men right after they pillage the city of Amiens . Additional, the officers are universally hated by the guys and Fry, a buddy of the narrators, even goes so far as to shoot an officer in the back. All these sentiments of the guys are echoed by a statement of the protagonist in which he declares that “we have learnt who our genuine enemies are. The lice, some of officers and death.” Glory and honour are ‘fanciful notions’ as far as the guys fighting the war are concerned.

Harrisons anti-war novel “Generals Di in Bed” is a graphic recount by an anonymous soldier of the bloodbath that was the trenches of World War 1. The novel leaves room for the reader to appreciate the heroism that some of the guys possessed by decribing the endurance of he males and their struggle to maintain humanity. Nonetheless the key theme all through the text is that war is a location devoid of glory and heroism. The novel causes the reader to ask, why has war persisted in human affairs from the beginning of recorded history?