Joseph Plumb Martin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Joseph Plumb Martin - Essay Example Wit and humor are great assets for a writer. Martin describes about the confusing situations that prevailed in the uncertain battlegrounds. Without able officers to guide, issue orders to the soldiers as to the course of action to be followed everything was in a state of mess in the war-fronts. The soldiers were ill-equipped, untrained and faced life-and death situations often. Most of them were inexperienced and did not possess the skills and intricacies of attacking and defending in warfronts. Martin’s grouse that the authorities did not care for the ordinary soldier is genuine. They defended the people and the cause, and once the war was over they were finding it difficult to defend their poor pensions. This observation of Martin is bone chilling: â€Å"If I chance to die in a civilized country, none will deny me that. A dead body never begs a grave; thanks for that.† (p.179, 180). Martin and fellow-soldiers fought wars with utter dedication in sub-human conditions. Their patriotism was matchless. Martin felt genuine anguish the way the soldiers were treated by the authorities, once the job was done. His language is not that of a bitter critic. His simple words pierce the conscience of a discernable reader, like a sharp dagger. Revolutionary speeches were delivered by the big leaders, theoreticians on the subject of racism, and other think-tanks from the ivory towers. But the real difficulties of the war was borne by the ordinary soldiers, and the goal of freedom for the Nation was accomplished by them fighting from the deadly trenches, with genuine apprehensions about their survival to see the sun rise for another day.