Post B

In Post A I mentioned how lying can sometimes be a good thing because lying helped Karsten many times. The first time he lied was when he wrote a letter to his mother. He didn't exactly lie but he didn't tell the truth either. All he said was that he was safe. The problem was that he was an officer and all of the soldiers were mad at him for surrendering. Some even wanted revenge which leads to the second time he lied, when he was talking to an angry soldier that was there because of his officer. The soldier was talking to Karsten about the officers when he said, "Should be shot, the lot of them... Wants to pass as a regular soldier, avoid interrogation. Coward twice over" (103). Then the third time he told a lie was when he told the British soldiers that he wasn't an officer. This saved him from being taken away.

I still feel really bad for Karsten. It says, "Karsten can't help thinking that he saved their lives at the cost of his own honor, and if he had it to do again, he isn't sure he'd bother" (106). I think it's weird how all of his men are ignoring him. Also, like the narrator said, Karsten did it at the cost of his own honor which meant quite a lot to him. The next quote is when Karsten is looking at all of the other men. It says, "He does want to join them, feels the pill, like gravity, yet he's not sure he belongs. Too ashamed? he wonders. Perhaps also too proud, in his own stiff-necked way. Not ready to be forgiven" (109). This quote really surprised me. I mean I can understand why Karsten's so mad at the other soldiers but if I were him, I'd still want an apology. Hopefully later on things will get better for Karsten and he'll finally get along with them.

Post A

Vocab
plummy (96)-good or desirable.
tingeing (101)-to impart a trace or slight degree of some color to; tint.

Figurative Language
1) "They were just specks really, distant, barely distinguishable figures, but he'd hunched over at the sight of them as if they were snipers, flinching from walking sticks and raised arms" (101). This is a simile because it describes how the men were hunching by using the word as.
2) "Besides, when he'd gotten closer to the head of the line and could overhear the questions being asked, there were just the usual three--name, rank, and serial number--repeated over and over like a litany" (106). This is another simile because it describes how they were asking the questions by using the word as.
3) "The slumped prisoners leapt to their feet with a roar, watching the twin plumes of a cannon fire stitch across the sand, baying themselves hoarse, until the neat dotted lines had begun to leap towards them" (99). This is personification because the cannon is being described with human characteristics.

Quote
"Dear Mutti, he tries again. Dear Mutti. Dear Mutti. The, I am safe" (98). This quote is important because it shows how stressed out Karsten has been about surrendering. It took him a really long time to finally decided what to say and in the end, the message was only a few words long.

Theme
Sometimes lying to people can be a good thing. This applies to the story because Karsten had to lie to his mother so that she wouldn't have to worry about him. Also, lying saved his life when he was talking to the other soldier because the soldier was mad at all the officers that had surrendered. The third time Karsten lied was when he told the Tommies that he wasn't an officer.