Soldier's Heart By Gary Paulsen

In the book Soldier’s Heart by Gary Paulsen, the main character, Charley, sees some awful things. There are many down falls to war, and the imagery is one of them. Some soldiers aren’t strong enough to take the emotional hit that follows it. You go through battle daily and see people being shot, but the aftermath is worse than watching people fall, clinging to life by a thread, if they haven’t already died. They stab, shoot and claw and they’re filled with too much joy for the moment because they’re all killing for the same purpose. They kill before they are killed. You see people clutching their stomachs with their intestines spilling out. Blood stains any drinking water red, leaving a metallic taste. People bend over, retching because
Imagine seeing a bowling ball coming at your head, at the speed of light, and then seeing nothing. That was what it was like to have your head taken off by a cannon ball. They shatter bones, and crush people. Bullets fly everywhere, colliding in midair. There are at least a thousand or more. They constantly run into each other like bugs, and some get buried inside of people. In this battle you were lucky to make it out alive. Even then it would be worse to see what had happened than actually dying with them. If you died in battle you were named as heroic, if you survived you were deemed just a volunteer. You were another ordinary person. All of the horrors and gore aren’t worth the fighting. You’re killing people because you want your side to dominate the other. People may never see their family again because they had to fight in this war. The horrors of war, are they really worth killing over? I don’t think they are. Some people will always disagree. You can’t always please everyone no matter how hard you try. You have to decide if it is worth destroying thousands of your own people over a disagreement. Killing innocent people, volunteers even, because you didn’t like something isn’t okay. The emotional impact that follows war is worse than any wound in battle. Many people are scarred and will never be the same