42 pages • 1 hour read
Charles Yale HarrisonGenerals Die In Bed
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1930A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Narrator
The protagonist in Generals Die in Bed is also its unnamed narrator. All Harrison reveals about the narrator is that he is an 18-year-old Canadian from Quebec who has enlisted to fight in WWI. By choosing to not give his narrator a name, physical description, or background, Harrison invites readers to see the narrator as representative of all young recruits. In addition, because Harrison allows the story to unfold through a limited first-person point of view, everything that happens in the novel is filtered through the narrator’s consciousness.
At the beginning of the book, the narrator takes part in the celebrations surrounding the Canadian sendoff of troops. Soon, however, he admits to loneliness and fear, emotions that continue to grow throughout the book. In the trenches he endures lice, rats, gunfire, and finally wounding, becoming increasingly hardened to life and death. The narrator’s experiences reflect The Psychological Impact of Combat on the common soldier. For example, when on leave in London, the narrator becomes angry with civilians who do not understand or want to hear about the conditions at the front. The narrator often chooses to self-medicate by drinking excessively to forget the horrors of war. At the end of the book, as the narrator is loaded onto a hospital ship, he is forced to consider the ethical and moral implications of what he has done at the urging of superior officers. The novel closes with the suggestion that those considerations might plague him for the rest of his life.
Anderson
Anderson is the oldest man in the unit. A highly religious man, he quotes scripture and prays incessantly. As a character, he is a foil for the debauchery of the younger men when they go drinking and visit sex workers. As the book develops, Anderson becomes increasingly fanatical about his religion, even going so far as to say that the biblical Book of Revelations indicates the exact date the war will end. Anderson’s beliefs also stand in contrast to the narrator’s loss of faith in God. Anderson dies in the penultimate battle in the book. Harrison’s message is that even the devout cannot be saved in such a brutal war.
Broadbent
Broadbent is a corporal in the unit. As such, he is the most experienced of the soldiers. In general, he attempts to educate the men to help with their survival. At times, however, he is still just a common soldier who squabbles over rations. He and the narrator are the only survivors of the penultimate battle in the book. However, Broadbent dies during the Battle of Amiens. Harrison uses his death scene to contradict the myth that men die heroically. Broadbent bleeds out while the narrator sits with him, crying for his mother.
Brown
Brown is another enlisted man. He is from Prince Edward Island, where he has a farm and a wife waiting for him. Brown is not the most adept soldier, and for this reason, Captain Clark unfairly picks on Brown, punishing him at every opportunity. Brown hates Clark and wishes he were dead. He even threatens to kill Clark: “I’m just waiting until we get into a real scrap. I’ll plug the son of a bitch between the shoulder blades” (20). Brown’s comment is the first indication of the growing hatred the troops feel for their officers.
Early in the book, Brown takes responsibility for dividing up the breakfast rations for the other men. He says, “Don’t want to die before breakfast, eh?” (32). The statement proves to be an ironic foreshadowing: A nearby sniper kills Brown as he stands to retrieve a spoon. Brown is the first member of the section to die, and in his death the dehumanization of the common soldier becomes obvious. Once dead, the narrator refers to Brown’s body as “it.”
Fry
Fry is another member of the narrator’s unit. He openly expresses disillusionment and anger over the treatment of common soldiers by officers as well as his bitterness with leadership in the war: “They take everything from us: our lives, our blood, our hears; even the few lousy hours of rest, they take those too. Our job is to give, and theirs is to take” (26). Through Fry’s comments, Harrison develops the theme of Disillusionment and Distrust of Leadership. Fry deliberately kills Captain Clark in the heat of battle when Clark issues an order that will have them all killed. Fry is one of the last men in the unit that is killed in battle. When he is injured, the narrator leaves him to die to save his own life.
Captain Clark
Clark is the commanding officer of the unit. The narrator describes him as someone “tall and blond and [who] takes an insufferable pride in his uniform” (19). His uniform, cared for by his batman (an enlisted man who acts as a servant for the officer), is always scrupulously clean.
Clark makes unreasonable demands of the men and orders them to perform grueling and dangerous tasks. His bullying and scant regard for the well-being of his men depict the war’s leadership as harsh and exploitative toward the common soldiers, reflecting the novel’s thematic preoccupation with The Dehumanization of Common Soldiers. Captain Clark’s behavior causes resentment among his troops; his unreasonable behavior culminates in his orders during the final battle for the men to go back onto the battlefield to face a certain death. Fry murders Captain Clark in response, revealing the extent to which Clark’s ruthlessness has fueled the troops’ Disillusionment and Distrust of Leadership.
