y to believe you can fight for a word when you’re so far away from the fighting. It’s easy to be noble and patriotic. But when you’re actually there, inside the belly of the war, staring at the awful gaping jaws of death every ten seconds, you aren’t fighting for democracy or freedom anymore. You’re fighting for your life.This novel didn’t tell me much about war itself, but it did show me the aftermath of war through the eyes of one soldier. Society always hears about the brave young men who come home from battle, or the brave young men who died for their country, but rarely do we hear about the brave young men who lost their lives, though they didn’t die. Although not directly thought by Joe, I can’t help but wonder how many more soldiers like Joe there were after the war was over. How many other soldiers are effectively missing in action?Not only did I get to learn about Joe’s emotional and physical pain firsthand, I got to learn about his past life, before the war, which is about 1896-1914. I get to learn through Joe’s own eyes what working on a section gang is like. Railroad work is extremely difficult, and is aptly described through Joe. He and his friend Howie quit after working for only one day. Joe subconsciously realizes how incredibly difficult it must be for the men who have no choice about quitting. The Mexicans who work on that railroad don’t even know how hard their life is.One remarkably different thing about Joe’s life is that when he was a kid, his family not only grew their own vegetables, they own a cow and chickens and made their own cream, butter, jelly, and jam. They gathered their own chicken eggs. Joe’s family wasn’t a family of farmers either; they actually lived in the city. This life seems so different from life today.On the subject of girls, little has changed over the years. Joe checks them out with his friends...
