English Final - 2 soldiers Flashcards
summary
two brothers from a poor family hear about the attacks on pearl harbor on their neighbors radio. The older one, Pete, understands this means he must go off to fight. The younger brother wants to go too but he’s 8 so he can’t but he doesn’t understand why. Pete goes to Memphis to enlist and his brother follows him the next day, bringing only a few possessions. He makes his way to memphis and finds his brother eventually at the enlistment office (but not before cutting a few people w his knife). Pete explains to him that he can’t go off to the war with him. The Colonel’s wife then drives him home in a fancy car.
main characters
Pete, 18
younger brother, 8
themes
determination, isolation, connection, loss, change, patriotism, innocence
symbols?
Faulkner may be using the symbolism of the car travelling at speed back to Frenchman’s Bend to highlight the change the narrator feels and how quickly it has come for him
why is the title “ironic”
bc really only Pete is a soldier, in regular terms, but YB is also doing the same things a soldier would do. Doing something he has to do even though it will be hard (going to memphis to find pete), reluctantly using violence to get to where he believes is right, he is very devoted to his cause. Also ironic bc YB is not a soldier. he is so young yet already feeling the crushing affects of war
