ipl-logo

A Soldier's Secret Character Analysis

957 Words4 Pages

The bloodiest battle in American history, the Civil War which took place in 1860 through 1864, had many events, battles and hardships. The novel A Soldier 's Secret written by Marissa Moss, contains lots of historical accuracy but also holds a number of inaccuracies as well, in regards to women soldier’s, amputations and the main character Sarah Edmonds.

In A Soldier’s Secret the main character is a 19 year old girls from michigan named Sarah Edmonds. She did not like being a girl since the norm of the time period for women was to stay home and clean all day. So she ran away from home and changed her appearance to look like a guy. She also changed her name to Frank Thompson to go with the whole thing. A year later she decided to enlist into …show more content…

You might think that doctors did it just to be ruthless but according to Dr. Jonathan Letterman(1863) “The surgery of these battle-fields has been pronounced butchery. Gross misrepresentations of the conduct of medical officers have been made to those who had friends or relatives in the army, who might at any moment require the services of a surgeon. But we perform these surgeries for the greater good.” Meaning that they perform amputations to help save lives and they are not just butchering up people 's arms and legs. The operating rooms are quoted to resemble Hell. According to Jenny Goellnitz(1862) “field hospitals are hell on earth. The surgeon would stand over the operating table for hours without a let up. Men screamed in delirium, calling for loved ones, while others laid pale and quiet with an effect of shock.” In order to amputate one 's body part. The surgeon would clean up the wound, then he would knock out the patient with anesthesia and cut the body part off clean through everything. They did this so it would be easier to finish the procedure(Jenny Goellnitz,2013). In A Soldier 's Secret Amputations were not very historically accurate. Amputations were very over dramatized and way over the top. Their was patient after patient waiting to get limbs chopped up. Blood everywhere and they didn’t even knock anyone out so everyone was screaming, yelling. And holding each other down. The book just made it all a huge mess and terrible place to be. The book 's point of view on amputations is just not historically correct to what actually happened in the Civil War (Marissa

Show More
Related

  • How Is Daniel Hale Williams Successful

    709 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The operation was done without X-rays, antibiotics, surgical prep-work, or tools of modern surgery. Dr. Williams' skills placed him and Provident Hospital at the fore-front of one of Chicago’s medical milestone” (“Who Was Dr. Daniel Hale

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

    2458 Words  | 10 Pages

    http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v08/v08p433_berg.html https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005538 Exposition Start of in poland(first place invaded) There father was shot and killed while trying to escape They are put on a transport train to SACHSENHAUSEN Rising action (Flashback) Francoise has a flashback about being in a hospital. She accidentally hears her father talking to a doctor about how he can't pay to fix her Typhoid.

    Read More

  • The Role Of The Surgeons In The Civil War

    384 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to HistoryNet,”that far more lives were lost in refusal to amputate than by amputation”(Bollet 1), it isn’t that the surgeons didn’t want to operate on someone it's that the patient refused to be operated on. Most of the surgeon eventually got P.T.S.D. ( Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), they usually got

    Read More

  • Pain In John Steinbeck's All Quiet On The Western Front

    1110 Words  | 5 Pages

    Things like this happened regularly and some doctors used this time in the war as a time to experiment on the patients and try knew forms of surgery. One type was making arcs in people's feet, the surgeon took every opportunity, this often hurt the patients even more and made it so they could never walk again without assistance. Out in the trenches Paul witnessed someone's jaw getting popped out of place from being hit and his friend punching it to pop it back in. Events like this happened often because medical care was not always around. Paul witnessed his friend Kat die and tried to save him but he did not make it.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

    231 Words  | 1 Pages

    Stanislaus Katczinsky is characterized as the leader of the group in All Quiet on the Western Front. However his group did not survive the war, Katczinsky was able to provide the soldiers with a sense of comfort and warmth which aid them through their journey on the front further on. He is a leader in every way being “shrewd, cunning, and hard-bitten, forty years of age… and [has] a remarkable nose for dirty weather, good food, and soft jobs” (Remarque 4). Katczinsky is more than qualified to be the leader of the group because of the wisdom that he brings due to his age but also the incredible abilities he possesses that help the boys on their harsh experience on the front. However he is a leader and an authority figure to the boys, he is not

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

    342 Words  | 2 Pages

    I am going to be talking about a boy named joby whom just have entered the army by force. And of course because of his age he’s the heart of the army and not just because he’s the drummer boy. The authour of the story is ray bradbury and the story is called the drummer boy of shiloh. The boy joby feels lonley alot becasue he’s with alot of grown men who which he does not know any of them but the general who he encounters a conversation with. He soon will meet his destiny in war as he realizes he is the heart of the soldiers just like he was told an soon very soon will be leading them.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

    390 Words  | 2 Pages

    Joby is a young boy of just fourteen who is in the Civil war. He is scared and afraid because he is only a drummer boy and the other soldiers have weapons and armor to protect them. All Joby has is his drum and he doesn't feel that it will protect him from what it is ahead. The general inspires Joby to overcome his fears and walk bravely onto the battlefield.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front: A Character Analysis

    1245 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the year 1914, a war started that would turn innocent people against each other, and have aftermaths that include thousands of people dead due to new equipment like tanks, gas attacks, and hand-to-hand combat. In this war there was a soldier named Paul Bäumer who is a German nineteen year old who has made friends that will last a lifetime during this experience, but has also felt immense pain. His daily routine is to sleep, eat, and fight in the trenches, and he experiences death every day. Most soldiers view death as a recurring event, but Paul views it as wretchedness, which makes him different from others by caring about his comrades more than others. Paul shows many qualities through this experience of being a soldier in the First World War, and he learns what is necessary in life, which takes some people years to figure out.

    Read More

  • Civil War Accuracy

    931 Words  | 4 Pages

    During the late 1850’s and early 1860’s, people would gather for a family day at the local battlefield, after all, it was a spectacle. Unfortunately, those people didn’t know of the advancements that were being made in the field of warfare, and they paid a deadly price. The Civil War is best summed up by Christian Wolmar: By making use of innovations in communications, weaponry and transport, principally the railroads, the belligerents, especially the North, developed a new type of war that was fought with much wider use of technology and in a way that relied on mobility and flexibility far more than its predecessors. The Civil War was more than just a war between two opposing sides fighting for what they believed in.

    Read More

  • The Knife Rhetorical Analysis

    545 Words  | 3 Pages

    Doctors are infamous for their unreadable writing; Richard Selzer is not one of those doctors. A talented surgeon, Selzer has garnered critical acclaim for his captivating operating room tales, and rightfully so. A perfect exhibition of this is The Knife, a detailed illustration of a surgery. What may seem like an uninteresting event is made mesmerizing by Selzer’s magnificent account of the human body and the meticulousness that goes into repairing it. The rhetorical appeals, tone, and figurative language that Selzer uses throughout The Knife provide the reader with a vivid description of the sacred process of surgery.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Battle Of Shiloh By Shelby Foote

    1647 Words  | 7 Pages

    The Civil War is not something that one desires to relive, but Shiloh by Shelby Foote brings to life one of the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Foote takes the reader through the Battle of Shiloh from 17 different soldiers’ perspectives. Foote combines his narrative style with traditional historical style to depict the importance of the Battle of Shiloh with accuracy to engage his audience. Through the development of his narrative style, Foote is able to change the way American histories are written. Shelby Foote utilizes Union and Confederate perspectives to present a true narrative on the Battle of Shiloh, while highlighting the human experience in war, to influence the American’s view on history.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

    1191 Words  | 5 Pages

    The war effected all of the young men greatly. I believe Paul became changed from the war because he learned that you can't take anything for granted especially food. The men would do anything to get a hearty meal. Paul also changed from being a young boy to being a mature man. Paul learns that his family isn't the people he grew up with but the people that he has been through war with.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay: Flowers For Algernon

    607 Words  | 3 Pages

    They were mainly doing the surgery for their own benefit. In the story "Flowers for Algernon," Charlie overhears the doctors talking about the release date for the surgery results. This tells readers that the doctors did not care what happened to Charlie; all they cared about was getting the title of being the first doctors to be successful in a surgery like this. They also cared more about seeing the effects of the surgery on a human so they could use it for their own benefit. Therefore, the doctors surely could not be ethical if all they cared about were themselves.

    Read More

  • Things They Carried Rhetorical Analysis Essay

    1333 Words  | 6 Pages

    In war, there is a winning side and a losing side, but both suffer casualties. Afflictions are not always dealt in death and physical pain, but also emotional damage. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, he emphasizes war’s capabilities to change people. When Mary Anne, a sweet, innocent, all-American girl, arrives in Vietnam to be with her soldier boyfriend, change is inevitable, and she will eventually lose her naiveté. O’Brien utilizes personification, jarring imagery, hyperbole, and pathos to convey that war shatters all innocence, no matter how hard one may try to avoid the change.

    Read More

  • Bloodletting 18th Century

    860 Words  | 4 Pages

    Doctors during the 12th century to 13th century performed risky medical techniques on patients to cure diseases. Bloodletting was used to get rid of illnesses that patients acquired. This technique was not effective, it required patients to lose blood to get healthier. Physicians would sliver open patient’s skin to extract the patient’s blood.

    Read More

More about A Soldier's Secret Character Analysis

Open Document