Journal #15

1. Write a sentence that summarizes the story’s overall message, and provide three direct quotes from the story that best illustrate this message.

Don’t just look at the world in your idealistic view but the realistic view as well. Look at the pros and cons because nothing turns out the way you expect.

“To take the part that her whole soul willed him to take, for the completion of her ideal of him”

"I shall always love you, and therefore I shall never

marry any one else. But the man I marry must love

his country first of all”

“I should like to kill a man; but now I

shouldn't care; and the smokeless powder lets you

see the man drop that you kill. It's all for the country”

2. What tactics does Editha use to make George believe as she does about the war?

She uses a lot of religion and patriotism to get him to want to go to war. Because she compares this to being God’s war and God wants him to fight he gives in and then wants to go to war. She also takes him to the rally and he sees all the good stuff like brotherhood and being a captain that war could bring him. She also says a lot of times that if you love your country you will go to war and he loves his country so that convinces him more to go to war.

3. Is there ever a time in which Editha truly understands what she has done? Does she ever experience an epiphany?

I think she does realize what she has done when she finds out that George has died in the war. She starts crying frantically and tells his mom right away like George told her to do if he were to die. She does realize that she never thought that she would die but I don’t think she had an epiphany because she just goes right back to moving on and persuading people at the end. She never really grieves over him as much as she would if she truly realized what she had caused.