Generals Die in Bed

Generals Die in Bed is an anti-war novel. Do you agree?

Generals Die in Bed is anti-war novel. It shows that despite attempts to glorify war in reality war is horrific. Although it seems like soldiers are serving and doing their country well, majority of people are suffering in countless ways. Soldiers face immense physical and psychological suffering. There is no companionship between officers and their soldiers whatsoever, and countless civilians suffer as well. This novel illustrates an account of how not only one soldier suffered, but the narrator speaks on behalf of every soldier and what they all endured throughout the time of terrible hardship in war.

Undergoing war brings a lot of suffering to one’s self and society as a whole. It demonstrates how traumatising it can be and has a significant impact on your physical health. One’s emotional health affects your physical ability to do certain activities and also affects one’s health in numerous ways. The lack of hygiene was putrid as soldiers were infested with vermin swarming in their surroundings. ‘’It is a rat. It is as large as a tomcat.” The soldiers worked and forever tried to serve their county good and had different expectations to what it would really be like out on the Warfield. Soldiers were constantly exhausted and did not get the amount sleep which they needed. ‘’Rest’ means endless marching...’

Generals Die in Bed displays how soldiers suffer psychologically throughout war, and even after war as the memory of war will literally be on their minds. ‘I can find nothing to appease my terror.’ They learn that basically every man has to stand high and fight no matter what the circumstance is. ‘Lack of concern for anyone else... ‘they have started to shell the front line... We do not care. We are safe.’ Psychological suffering would also affect soldiers’ physical health as it is a very high possibility that soldiers will go through severe depression to watch their friends, family and soldiers...