Generals Die in Bed Notes
Generals Die In Bed
Chapter by Chapter
Chapter One • Montreal, Quebec – Setting • Dilapidated, squalid red brick houses • Heavy odour of stale booze and women is in the air • Sleeping in a barn-like bunk room • “The room is fouled with the odours of dissipation.” • They are all recruits waiting to go to the war • “Men are hauled out of there bunks and strapped into their equipment.” • Main character is only 18 • The people of the city celebrate the departure of the battalion with fireworks, women are hysterical • A random girl kisses the protagonist • He likes the confusion of the war, heroes, music, fireworks, the kiss of the girl. • “She is the last link between what I am leaving and the war.” • The protagonist thinks of running away with the girl. • They are hustled onto the train and taken off to war.
Chapter Two • Winding their way through the muddy communication trench • “In the dark we stumble against the sides of the trench and tear our hands and clothing on the bits of embedded barbed wire that runs through the earth here as though it were a geographical deposit.” • Fry keeps slipping into holes in the ground, Brown and the protagonist fish him out and he wants them to let him lie there and he will come on later. • The Sergeant pretty much forces him to keep going. • They arrive at their positions at midnight. • Protagonist and Cleary talk about ways they could make the trench more comfortable. • They are on sentry duty. • Protagonist gets tired and begins to see the wire posts on the battlefield move towards him • He begins to doze • The German’s launch a minenwerfer attack, the trench rocks and sways, mud and earth leap into the air • They try to burrow into the ground like frightened rats • Protagonists nose starts bleeding from the force of the detonations • It stops then starts again. • “The air
Chapter by Chapter
Chapter One • Montreal, Quebec – Setting • Dilapidated, squalid red brick houses • Heavy odour of stale booze and women is in the air • Sleeping in a barn-like bunk room • “The room is fouled with the odours of dissipation.” • They are all recruits waiting to go to the war • “Men are hauled out of there bunks and strapped into their equipment.” • Main character is only 18 • The people of the city celebrate the departure of the battalion with fireworks, women are hysterical • A random girl kisses the protagonist • He likes the confusion of the war, heroes, music, fireworks, the kiss of the girl. • “She is the last link between what I am leaving and the war.” • The protagonist thinks of running away with the girl. • They are hustled onto the train and taken off to war.
Chapter Two • Winding their way through the muddy communication trench • “In the dark we stumble against the sides of the trench and tear our hands and clothing on the bits of embedded barbed wire that runs through the earth here as though it were a geographical deposit.” • Fry keeps slipping into holes in the ground, Brown and the protagonist fish him out and he wants them to let him lie there and he will come on later. • The Sergeant pretty much forces him to keep going. • They arrive at their positions at midnight. • Protagonist and Cleary talk about ways they could make the trench more comfortable. • They are on sentry duty. • Protagonist gets tired and begins to see the wire posts on the battlefield move towards him • He begins to doze • The German’s launch a minenwerfer attack, the trench rocks and sways, mud and earth leap into the air • They try to burrow into the ground like frightened rats • Protagonists nose starts bleeding from the force of the detonations • It stops then starts again. • “The air