Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?

  1. Father: war is a romantic idea

it is a way for boys to become men

it is a way for men to capture glory

Paul should view war as a series of adventures through which he can make his father proud

This is the view Paul has before he has actually experienced combat

2. Paul: finds that war is not as glorious as his father has led him to believe

war is frightening

WAR and FEAR of both war and dying are two possible themes

Billy serves as the example of how frightening war can be

the level fo fear he experienced was so great that he died from a heart attack rather than an actual injury

Paul tries different ways to deal with his own fear

counting his steps and pretending they were money, then imagining what he would spend the money on when he got back home

imagining sitting around the campfire with his dad and swapping "war stories"

imagining that simply by getting back to the sea, he somehow would be safe

finally, laughing uncontrollably