Anybody who has read Crane's Red Badge of Courage will certainly find Soldier's Heart by Gary Paulsen practically having the same message: Never for once confuse the audacity and recklessness of youth for the genuine bravery and real courage of a man!
Again , we have another young boy, barely 15 years old and leaving home,joining the ranks of audacious young boys to fight in a war they barely understood! True , these young men including our hero Charly Goddard were brave to enlist in the Army at a very young age but did they really understood what they were fighting for? They left home at very tender age against the wishes of loving parents , in this case ,mother Mrs Goddard!
True, the Volunteers fought well and courageously in Bull Run , Gettysburg , and other fields of war but most of them were too young to fight a man's war ! A war they should not have fought , anyway...alas, too young and innocent to see the horrors and violence of war.Not old enough to be even being part of death in war for most of the young boys who were slaughtered.
Just like our hero in The Red Badge of Courage, Charly came out of the war alive but with dreams broken ...with a soldier's heart!
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