Soldier's Heart Character Analysis

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“Some men came through combat unscathed. Most did not. These men were somehow different from other men. They were said to have soldier’s heart.” (pg xv) Charley, an underage and young, excited boy wills to enlist as a soldier, ready to provide for his family and seem tough to pretty girls who wave to him. But once in combat, Charley realizes that things are not as easy as they seem. Death shows up everywhere, and the blood-curdling screams haunt his dreams. In this novel titled Soldier’s Heart by Gary Paulsen, Charley must deal with the grappling fear of being killed or captured while witnessing friends and companions die before him. Charley no longer remembers the feeling of a young boy looking for adventure, but a man with soldier’s heart. Charley Goddard, a fifteen year-old boy from Winona, Minnesota, desperately wants to serve the Union. He wants to wear blue and fight the Rebels, and he wants pretty girls to wave at him and give him sweets as he heads off to …show more content…
The seats are plush on the train and he receives waves and sweets from girls. Things can not get any better. Until the first battle: The Battle of Bull Run. After he sees that the water he has been drinking all along is actually filled with blood from dead bodies upstream, Charley starts to lose it. He becomes dazed as a full-on war unfolds before his eyes. Fear takes over him. Bullets drive past his face. Charley sees Nelson, a somewhat-friend he makes, and rushes over to him only to find he has a shot in his stomach. “Stomach wounds were fatal. The surgeons could do nothing… those soldiers would be left.” (Paulsen, page 53) As Charley walks away, all he hears is the sound of the shot from the gun he has just loaded and left with Nelson. “Here I am crying… I don’t even know him and-- The sound of the shot stopped him.” (Paulsen, page 57) Happy-go-lucky Charley starts to crumble. This might just be the end of
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