The Thin Red Line During the blood-stained war of the novel The Thin Red Line a theme is presented, “Only the courageous and emotionally strong-willed survive.” Throughout the storyline, the army of men parading through Guadalcanal are bombarded with unpredictable situations and odds. Only themen with courage at their backs and their heads screwed onstraight can get through this chaos. The timid, scaredstiff ones will not get out alive, but the ones who swallowtheir nerves can survive. Several men display thesequalities of bravery such as: Private Jon Bell, CaptainJames Stein, and Corporal Fife. Their heroiccharacteristics and deeds what saved the men overall, disobeying their sergeant included. They did what theyneeded to do to keep as many people alive as possible. Theones who are left standing were the ones who kept theircool. The men discovered what was “the thin red line”between the living and the dead, the crazy and the sane, howto live another day. Towards the beginning of the story this theme has beenportrayed through the minds of many soldiers. These menknow that half of them are going to die in the field ofbattle . Slowly the soaking in of this eats away at thesouls of the men. They each become more and more nervousand awaiting their time to attack. “Only the strongsurvive...” “...Why showed I be afraid to die?” CorporalFife says this before his trip into the jungle . With agood attitude and acceptance of the future his will powerdrives him forth to fight amazingly. He watches others asthey cry out and can’t take anymore. The ones who buckleunder the pressure and can’t find their way die. Giving upon himself is the worst he could have done in his situation. He runs ahead of all the men to see what he can do to breakdown enemy lines. As he hurdles into open fire he does notfreeze up he presses himself on and on.In the middle of the novel...
