38 pages • 1 hour read
Paul FleischmanBull Run
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Basic Human Desires Are Universal
Bull Run shows that Basic Human Desires Are Universal. The novel includes an equal number of characters from both the Union and the Confederacy. Instead of creating a contrast between the characters from opposing sides, the novel focuses on showing how similar they are. The author’s choice to alternate between Southern and Northern narrators in every chapter heightens the similarities between both sides. The constant switching means little emphasis is placed on whether the character is from the North or the South, and it can be easy to forget or get confused as to which side the character aligns with. The focus is on the characters’ thoughts, feelings, and experiences, rather than on their allegiance. This keeps the novel centered on the similarities in what the characters want and feel, regardless of which side they are on.
There are several examples in the novel of characters on opposing sides wanting the same thing. Lily Malloy from the North and Flora Wheelworth from the South are both females who have been left behind. Lily’s brother and Flora’s sons-in-law have enlisted and left to fight, leaving the women home to fret over their well-being. Both women want the men to come home safely. Colonel Oliver Brattle and General Irvin McDowell, officers in opposing armies, both fear the battle will not go as planned and want to be successful leaders. Carlotta King, a Black woman from the South, and Gideon Adams, a Black man from the North, both want freedom and to be treated as humans with equal rights rather than having their liberty restricted by their race. Last, all the characters who enlist in either army share the desire to stay alive. Flora recognizes this and treats the wounded Northern men in her home as well as the Southern ones, stating that “they were all simply men, all in grave need” (99).
The characters are not all aware that their enemy has the same wants and needs that they do. A.B. Tilbury and Virgil Peavey, for example, both believe the other side deserves to be defeated. A. B. calls Southerners “cruel-hearted, war-loving villains” (43), while Virgil thinks Northerners are “Yankee tyrants” (17). This shows an irony of the war: Soldiers see each other as “the Other” yet are unaware that they are very much alike. In the thick of battle, A. B. “wonder[s] whether their men were truly all savages” (77) and realizes that Confederate soldiers are probably just as afraid as he is. Both A. B. and Virgil last appear fleeing from gunfire, struggling to keep their lives. The theme that Basic Human Desires Are Universal reinforces the theme that War Is Always Destructive because by showing that the characters desire similar things, the author emphasizes the tragedy of Americans fighting each other.
War Is Always Destructive
This novel argues that War Is Always Destructive. In the first section of the book, the characters largely view war as a positive and exciting thing. Male characters such as Toby, Gideon, and Judah are eager to enlist and fight, even if their reasons are different. The Southerners in particular, like those celebrating the attack on Fort Sumter in Chapter 1, are happy to wage war against what they view as the oppressive Union. Both sides expect the war to end quickly, and the author uses the symbol of picnics to show the nonchalant attitude of soldiers and spectators alike. Although the characters are not blind to the possibility of death, praying with chaplains and writing letters home just in case they die, the confidence and cheer both sides feel are quickly crushed once the battle begins.
The author begins the novel with a more cheerful mood to contrast with the reality of the Battle of Bull Run. Through his descriptions of soldiers’ injuries, such as Dietrich’s ultimate double amputation, the many dead bodies on the battlefield, the soldiers’ fear and confusion, and Dr. Rye’s conclusion that the only victor was “Death upon his pale horse” (94), the author immerses the reader in the reality of war. Instead of picnics and drunken gambling in camps, the author now uses dark language to reveal a terrifying shift. He uses such descriptions as “a small mountain of amputated limbs” (94), soldiers who “[look] like a parade of ghosts” (97), and Flora’s house with “every bed and settee and most of the floor [...] occupied by wounded soldiers” (99) who moan and yell constantly. The irony that the characters did not expect this outcome, and, moreover, do not anticipate the years-long Civil War that is just beginning, only intensifies the terror of war’s destruction: the shock over what happens only makes things worse.
Last, the novel uses the motif of horses and Gulliver’s Travels to contrast between animal and human behavior. Through Shem’s eyes, the reader perceives horses as gentle and innocent creatures. When Shem listens to Gulliver’s Travels being read out loud, the story recounts man’s many weapons “that [leave] the field of battle strewn with bloody limbs” (54). This description both foreshadows the battle to come and points out that humans are “the foulest of beasts” (54) compared to horses because of the carnage they continue to create on the battlefield. As Dr. Rye observes, humans are foolishly “shocked [...] that men bleed and die” (25) every time battle is waged. War Is Always Destructive, yet humans continue to fight and kill each other senselessly.
War Affects Everyone
Bull Run shows the way that War Affects Everyone. This is shown primarily through its narrative style and structure. Instead of having one main character or narrator, the novel has 16 narrators who share the chapters fairly evenly. This structure lets characters from a variety of backgrounds, ages, locations, races, and genders tell their own stories. Alternating multiple narrators allows different types of people to have a voice and explain the way the war affects them. Thus, the choice to structure the novel by presenting a multiplicity of voices supports the theme by presenting both the shared aspects and the individual impacts of the war, which vary according to the narrators’ positions in life and roles in the war.
Moreover, the various characters the author chooses as narrators reveal that War Affects Everyone. The novel has an equal number of Northern and Southern characters, so that it gives voice to perspectives from both sides without revealing a strong bias in favor of either one. The reader is not invited to cheer for one army over the other; the war affects every character and, therefore, each character is constructed in a sympathetic way. The author intentionally includes a diverse range of characters to show that no one escapes the effects of war. While soldiers and officers are obviously touched by war, the novel shows that young girls, women, enslaved people, artists, photographers, doctors, musicians, and chauffeurs also have their lives changed by the Civil War. War touches everything. Interestingly, the effects of war are not exclusively negative; the novel shows that some characters prosper as a result of the war. Nathaniel Epp, for example, claims that he photographed a soldier’s “soul, plainly leaving a dying body,” making him enough money to “never [go] hungry since” (20), while Shem Suggs finally gets his own horse as a result of the death of its owner.
Although the novel gives equal weight to the characters’ experiences, it does show that war does not affect everyone in the same way. It is important to consider the context of the novel’s time and place. In 1861 America, there were stark separations and inequalities among races, genders, and social classes. As the novel shows, due to racial prejudice in the North and slavery in the South, enslaved people, such as Carlotta King, and free Black people, such as Gideon, are firmly invested in the war’s outcome. Carlotta and Gideon both believe their freedom—whether her literal emancipation or his freedom to better his life and be treated with respect and social acceptance—is critically tied to the Battle of Bull Run and the Civil War that has just begun. On the opposite side of things, rich white people in the novel, like the politician picnickers Edmund Upwing chauffeurs, do not appear to be directly affected by the war at this stage. These characters have the wealth and status, affording them the privilege of viewing the war as entertainment. However, because Bull Run is the first major battle of the war, it can be projected that their lives will indeed be changed by the effects of a nation fighting against itself for four years.
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By Paul Fleischman
