Month: April 2020

After the last part of the book leaving off with Spencer being confused about why he went to war and dieter still being the proud nationalist that he is. Today we are talking about the end of the book and how it relates to the start and middle of the book also. Our main topic today is setting and mood with a little bit of historical understanding. The setting and mood of this part of the book might be the most brutal part being of the gory scenes that are described. Now both of these boys finally realize that going to war was the main objective is to kill was worse then they thought. Spencer still Refusing to accept the norms of war, that you simply let the enemy die when Spence hears the cries of a young wounded German soldier he knows he has to act. “What would he want someone to do, he asked himself, if his own little brother were the one down there?” In the end, his act of heroism is remembered, but he’s not there to witness it. Spence’s heroic act is not what he thought it would be, he gets shot by another German soldier while trying to do this. This relates to the setting and mood because one minute you might be trying to save someone’s life and the next moment someone is trying to take yours. Dieter, on the other hand, is worried about dying and is scared to fight now. In conclusion, this book really reflects on how someone might change their decisions and though one something after the time of doing that thing. The ending of this book was expected for me because of the fact that these boys were different the entire time but would change there mindset to become more similar.

After leaving off in the book Soldier Boy by Dan Hughes, Dieter believes that it Is his life’s duty to fight for his country. He uses this quote more than one time, “standing up for the Fatherland, making it a great nation again.” While spencer starts to realize that the only reason he is doing this is to impress a girl he may not see for another 10 years because of war. This week feeling is going to be the focus, because of what these boys and feeling about being in this harsh war and maybe some of there regretting feelings. In this part of the book with really see some of the most gruesome, mentally and physically hardpoints in the book and in the war. We start to see how these young boys and handling being in this war. First starting with Spencer who is fighting with the idea of why did he sign up for this so profusely without thinking it over. In every chapter when it talks about him, he fights with the metal idea of dying for nothing because he states that he is confused about what he is fighting for, (for himself). While Dieter is the less developed person compared to Spencer, Dieter is still in the war, fighting with pride and sharing no inside feeling yet with us about how he is dealing with what he has gotten himself into. There have been some small hints during Dieter’s time in the book about him starting to regret his possible rest of life decision. In conclusion, the feeling of these characters so far might not be the same but are starting to become very familiar. We might start to see some changes in physical activity from Spencer and the mental change in dieter as this book starts to end.

After leaving off with Dieter being 15 workings with the Hitler youth and what it looks like becoming eager and more eager to enlist to fight. We start reading about there next stages of life possibly heading into combat soon. Now entering these boys the first taste of war spencers battalion gets dropped of nearer to the front lines, Spencer starts to realize that what his sister said earlier in the book that he was just trying to ” Show up Luann” his crush. After spencers the first couple of days in London, he and his battalion are sent to the Ardennes Forest. Hitler undertook a surprise attack across the Belgian and Luxembourg borders, going fare into the Ardennes Forest.  Dieter is still fifteen and part of the Hitler Youth, digging trenches that he wishes he could be fighting in. In this part of the book, it is just these two boys preparing for the hardest times of there life. Listing some more similarities and differences of these boys, one is that Dieter believes that it Is his life’s duty to fight for his county uses this quote more than on time,l “standing up for the Fatherland, making it a great nation again.” While spencer start to realize the only reasons he is doing this is to impress a girl he may not see for another 10 years because of war. A Similarity about these boys is that how there aren’t view them going to war, with either father, a veteran of the Great War, who never talks about “the brave German boys”, because of the number of boys he has seen die and come home wounded of war. Also with Spencer’s parents making sure that this is what he really wanted to do with his life, being worried about him. In conclusion, we will see how these boys handle the devastation of war times mentally and physically,