A Soldier’s Heart

1. A Soldier’s Heart By: Gary Paulsen

2. Thesis Statment • A Soldier’s Heart by Gary Paulsen is a good book because he uses his life experiences, historical influence of the civil war, and realistic characteristics of Charley.

3. Summary • A Soldier’s Heart is about a young boy named charley. Charley wanted to join the army when he had seen how the army people were being treated by the girls. He was to young to join the army so he left his home town and went to a different town and joined there where no one knew him.

4. Summary Cont. • When he went off to war he talked to a man name Nelson. Charley knew Nelson for only a day before he was killed during a battle. After that Charley kept to himself and tried to avoid hospitals at all cost. When Charley got out of war he was about 20 years old. The war had gotten to him and he wanted to kill himself by the end.

5. Attention getter • “The sound of the shot stopped him. He stood for a moment the tears working down his face, Stood for a long moment and then started walking, He did not look back.”

6. Main Characters • Charley- Fifteen year old boy who leaves his hometown to go to another town to enlist in the army. He sees many terrible things at war, and when he is finally out of war at the age of twenty he feels so old mentally with all the things he has seen. These things get to him and he ends up wanting to kill himself.

7. Main characters Cont. Nelson- Nelson also known as cocky Nelson was Charleys first and only friend while at war. Nelson became friends with charley the first few days that they were at war. They knew each other for only a day before nelson was killed in the middle of a battle.

8. Life experiences • Paulsen was born at the end of the depression in 1939. • Garys father was a military officer during world war 2. • Gary Went into the army at a young age. • The book is based in home town

9. Historical influence of the civil war • The civil war had enormous casualties far beyond what had been experienced before. • Young boys enlisted without knowing what they were actually getting themselves into. • Food was never any good • “The food was simple and for the most part bad: beans, salt pork and coffee.

10. Historical influences cont. • Many soldiers end up with post traumatic stress disorder also known as “Soldiers Heart”. • Soldiers could be violent with this disorder and normally don’t want to talk about the war. • “He eased the hammer back until it clicked, looked at his finger on the trigger and knew that if he just touched it there, just a light touch it would trip the hammer to slap the percussion cap and set off the powder and send the littler .36 caliber ball speeding out of the barrel and into his…”

11. Realistic characteristics of charley • Charley became very anti-social well at war. • He wouldn’t get close to anyone in fear of getting close and than losing them. • Charley was very scared of death and hospitals • “Near the tent was a pile of arms and legs that stood four feet high and thirty feet long.”