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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BetaSymbols & Motifs
Horses
Horses are a motif that support the novel’s theme that War Is Always Destructive. Horses are primarily introduced through Shem Suggs, who has a deep affection for the animals. He views them as family and portrays them as loving and innocent creatures. When Shem listens to a section of Gulliver’s Travels being read aloud, horses stand out in contrast to people and their capacity for carnage. The passage describes horses who rule their own country and are “wise,” while humans are “the foulest of beasts” (54). The horses cannot believe that men wage war and have invented so many tools for killing. The passage in Gulliver’s Travels uses irony to show that while humans view themselves as “far advanced beyond horses” (54), they are actually inferior to the wise and gentle animals. Horses are capable of being peaceful in a way that people are not, highlighting the human propensity for destruction and violence. After the Battle of Bull Run, Shem’s description of the dead and suffering horses intensifies the tragedy of the battle for the reader. The injured horses, some of whom are “crushed to death or squealing like pigs” (92), must suffer the consequences of war without choosing to be a part of it. The motif of horses helps to show that war is so destructive that it tears down not just people, but even the most innocent of animals.
Picnics
The author uses the symbol of picnics and picnicking at several places in the novel to create a contrast between the characters’ expectations and the reality of war. In the opening chapter, South Carolinians picnic on their roofs in celebration of the attack on Fort Sumter, setting an excited and celebratory mood. Colonel Brattle’s “melancholy mood” (2) foreshadows that despite the celebrations, this will not be a happy affair. A. B. Tilbury’s unit later takes a leisurely march, eating blackberries; he describes it as “less a march than a picnic ramble” (44). A. B. is later shot in the arms and runs for his life while his fellow soldiers are shot down around him. The “picnic ramble” scene uses irony to show that marching toward battle might seem relaxed and fun, but the battle itself can never be that way. The picnickers on the hill who observe the battle provide another example of irony: they think the battle will be easy, quick, and entertaining, choosing to watch it as a diversion while sipping champagne. This does not reflect the lived reality of the battle, and when the Confederates approach the hill, the picnickers flee in panic. Their previously jovial outing stands in stark contrast to not only what happens in the battle but also to what is going to happen over the next four years. The picnics portrayed in the novel show that people in 1861 did not understand or predict the Civil War that was just beginning.
The Photo of the Young Seamstress
The photo of an anonymous young seamstress that Dietrich receives inside a shirt he is given symbolizes hope and the need for survival. The young woman, whom Dietrich knows nothing about, includes a note with her photo that says, “I fear I will take my own life” (24). The woman’s troubling note and the accompanying photo make her stick in Dietrich’s mind. Since he has no family members, these objects give him someone to think about. Dietrich keeps the photo in his jacket, and when he is injured in battle, he speaks to the young woman. Because her note says she is considering suicide, Dietrich considers her life to be in as much danger as his own. He “[tells] her [they are] both meant to live longer” (73). Dietrich imagines that if he “beg[s] her not to take her own life,” then she can “help [him] live” (73). Although his conversations with her are obviously one-sided, they give him a feeling of connectedness and strength. When the Confederate soldiers remove the photo from his jacket while he is lying on the ground after being shot, he uses all his strength—in “a task that seemed to take hours” (91)—to grab it, because although the photo is literally a piece of paper, it symbolizes hope. Flora’s account that a German soldier, presumed to be Dietrich, has a photo he “would not be parted from [...] even in sleep” (100) and manages to survive a double amputation shows the photo’s “healing powers” (100) for him. Dietrich’s determination to survive hinges on his belief that the young woman’s survival and his own are dependent on each other. This gives him the strength to keep fighting for his life, since it also means he is fighting for hers.
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By Paul Fleischman
