Soldier's Heart Quotes

Victory always comes with a cost, and that cost was paid in full by Charley Goddard’s traits. In this book “Soldier’s Heart” by Gary Paulsen, the main character is many things: heroic, loyal, daring, and noble. All of these adjectives describe Charley, but to truly describe him is to say he was like an eagle going hunting for prey - brave. Immediately when the story begins, we see that Charley is eager to join the Civil War to fight for his country. Before Charley goes off to join the military, his mother says “You ain’t but a boy”, to which Charley replies, “And I’ve got to be a man sometime”. We see that in the book, Charley was only 15 years old when he joined. Despite being under 18, Charley was brave enough to lie about how old he was

He finds himself overwhelmed with chaos on the battlefield. Upon seeing cannonballs exploding, bullets whizzing around, and his fellow soldiers dying, Charley screamed “Make it stop now!” Charley quickly regrets his decision to join the war, but he doesn’t desert or attempt to run away from the fighting. Instead, when met with unexpected and terrifying chaos, Charley holds his ground and follows orders to safely help his wounded comrades retreat.

Furthermore, the next day, Union troops prepared to attack the Confederates again. This time, it was early morning, and the sun had just started to rise. Charley and his fellow soldiers formed the same position as they did yesterday and waited to attack the Rebs. Charley knew from his first traumatic experience yesterday how things could have gone, yet he still kept formation through the battle-stricken battlefield and advanced to what he learned to be the abandoned rebel

One night on guard duty, Charley was patrolling near a river and ran into a Confederate soldier. Rather than getting scared and running away, Charley wasn’t bothered and even exchanged some possessions with the Confederate through trading. In the face of something new that could potentially be dangerous, Charley is not afraid to back down.

During the third battle, another soldier’s blood was spilled on Charley, which led him and others to believe that he was hit. Charley didn’t realize it at first, and was unfazed when a corporal told him because it didn’t hurt. When Charley went to the surgeon, the surgeon told him that he wasn’t hit, and it was someone else’s blood. Many people would have been panicked about an injury, but Charley kept calm and found out it was nothing to worry about.

Finally, in his last battle, Charley displayed heroic courage. Near the end of the battle, Charley and his fellow soldiers charged down the hill into the enemy. In this bloody battle, Charley would fight ferociously and be taken down in the middle of all the action. In the middle of everything, Charley is brave enough to fight in the center of the