Imagine living out your life, everyday thinking about the things you did wrong and worrying when you will make up for them. For Mr. Conradt in the story The War Chest this is his life. Now with little time left he decides he has to find a way to find the redemption he needs. However, people bent on redemption often will do anything to achieve it, so it is important to take a step back in order to realize if it is really worth it. For an 80 year old man in a diaper it is often hard not to reflect on your life. Mr. Conradt in particular reflected upon his mistakes. One of his mistakes that he loathed about the most was during his fighting days in World War II. His Sergeant was shot in the gut and died slowly and painfully over the course of two hours, while Conradt and his fellow soldiers stood by and watched. For this he wanted redemption. This was evident when he said, “We all knew he wasn’t gonna make it, but… None of us had the balls to do a thing about it” (145). It shows in a couple sentences how he hated this mistake of not putting the sergeant out of his misery. He realized that he would be able to find redemption for his mistake still. This led to him …show more content…
This mistake most likely aggravated him through all his years since. The woman was cyd charisse, or the woman of his dreams. He lies to Jeff in saying she was his wife and he is always focused on Jeff getting the girl of his dreams. He gives Jeff advice by saying, “If I hadn’t worked up my nerve, there never would have been a Mrs. Lester Conradt and I wouldn’t have had that picture…”(152). Later it is revealed to us by the very girl Jeff likes that the picture is not actually his wife when she asks, “What are you doing with a picture of Cyd Charisse?”(159). This is revealing because it shows Jeff that Mr. Conradt never got the girl and that it was all a lie. Once again he was looking for redemption, this time through