Shaara selects four main people as the viewpoint characters and moves back and forth among them to progress the story. This approach builds tension and allows personal connections to be made with the characters. Their backgrounds, desires, beliefs, and fears are revealed, and you see how these things, set against the canvas of events, will affect decisions and actions in the story. On the Confederate side he focuses on Lee and Longstreet, while on the Union side he focuses on Buford and Chamberlain.
He adds a couple of additional viewpoints to round out the story, using the characters of Harrison, a Confederate spy, Armistead, one of the Confederate commanders under Pickett, and Fremantle, an English observer on the Confederate side. The viewpoint characters selected have significance for a few reasons. First, they give the reader a view of the action from the different levels of command. Secondly, they let you see the battle from two different locations: the sidelines and the action.
Shaara's alternating of character viewpoints and locations provides glimpses of the planning, reasoning, and strategy sessions, as well as the in-the-moment battle experiences.
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The Killer Angels: Metaphor Analysis. The title of the novel, The Killer Angels, presents a recurring metaphor with a paradoxical meaning.
The apparent disappearance of the angel suggests that it has been wiped out by the brutality of war. But this is not the only occurrence of the angel image in the novel. The soldiers in that respect are agents of some divine plan, which is unknown to everyone except God. Traditionally, angels are regarded as messengers from God.
The image of man as a killer angel encompasses the opposites in his nature. He is capable of great brutality and destruction, as the novel, which does not shy away from the grim realities of war and combat, repeatedly demonstrates.
But man also has another dimension to his nature that connects him to God. This higher aspect of his nature is seen in the way that the characters express their noble ideals and are willing to sacrifice their lives for a cause that transcends their small individuality.
Facebook share Twitter WhatsApp. Harry Shippe Truman. Herbert Hoover. The Presidency of FDR. At dawn, a battle had started in the north, and Chamberlain, whose men need food, water, rest, and ammunition, feels relieved that the fighting was somewhere else.
Expecting them to have to fight until they fall, he is surprised to hear that replacements are on the way, and that his men have been reassigned to what appears to be the safest spot on the battlefield—the center of the line. He directed Longstreet to take three divisions—a total of 15, fighters—to capture the hill, to march upward to a clump of trees at the center of the ridge. Lee estimates Union strength at the center to be no greater than 5, men. Longstreet passes the order along to his generals—Pickett, Pettigrew, and Trimble.
Hancock is at the top of the hill, commanding Union forces. After reaching the wall and climbing over to the Union side, Armistead is hit, and as he dies, learns that Hancock has been hit as well. Pickett and other commanders lose most of their men in the battle.
As the survivors pull back, Lee finally admits his error to Longstreet, who gives his order to retreat. In a war for Italian independence, the Battle of Solferino was unexpected: Neither side knew the exact position of the other troops.
Such heavy losses resulted 29, killed or wounded, 4, missing or captured that the battle led to the establishment of the International Red Cross.
Forty percent of the Light Brigade dies in that attack. Why would he greet an enemy in this way? How could Armistead and Hancock, on opposite sides of the fight, become close friends? Why did officers under Lee want J. Stuart courtmartialed? Throughout The Killer Angels , Arthur Fremantle expresses admiration for the Confederacy and its similarities to England: its officers, the style of fighting, Southern cuisine and culture.
Two philosophies on leadership emerge from the following quotes in The Killer Angels : Chamberlain remember the teachings of "old Ames" : "Two things an officer must do, to lead men…. You must show physical courage. But to be a good officer you must be willing to order the death of the thing you love. What strengths emerged when either of these philosophies were employed? What weaknesses were revealed? The single reference to Native Americans has to do with a joke about cigar smoke and fat men.
The focus here is on male citizens of European descent. Readers might be encouraged to flesh out this skeletal picture of Civil War participation. For further reading: Bakeless, John, Spies of the Confederacy. Philadelphia and New York: J. Lippincott Co. Blight, David W. Book Review Digest, New York: Citadel Press, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, New York: Vintage Books, New York: Four Winds Press, McPherson, James M.
New York: Ballantine Books, New York: Clarion Books, Pfanz, Harry W. Stampp, Kenneth M. Stucky, W. Second Edition. Related Books and Guides.
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