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.
IRB blog post 4
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