on the occasion of my last afternoon
...oldiers, has a different opinion on slavery. When Emma’s father tries to write the offensive letter to the newspaper, Quincy rips it up and says, “You will never, ever write such missives from our home. You will lie there and be the sick, bloodthirsty, impotent braggart you are.” This shows that Quincy disagrees with the father’s views on slavery, and he thinks the father is a “sick, bloodthirsty, impotent braggart” for his opinion of blacks. People have different political views depending on their role in the war. A doctor who sees the casualties and horror of war, may not agree with a boastful, southern man, who is not in the war and seeing its destruction. In the book, different points of view are also used to give the reader a greater understanding of how different people feel about staying in the war. A wounded soldier, who sees the destruction of war firsthand, wants the war to stop. The wounded soldier in Emma’s house that says, “It needs to stop. Why will it not stop?”, is an example of how most soldiers felt about the war. He has suffered from the war himself and knows it needs to stop now to save the lives of the other soldiers still fighting. A prideful southern man, who is not in the war, wants it to continue. He neglects the fact that so many people are dying at the war’s expense. He wants to stay in the war so the South will win, and he can keep his way of life. His pride will not let him acknowledge the fact that the South is losing. When Quincy tries to make Emma’s dad aware of how brutal the war is by telling him about a patient he has treated, he comes back saying, “If you intend to shock me, you have not… If you chide me for wanting a severance of the Union, you have likewise failed.” Emma’s father is a perfect example of that prideful southerner who will not acknowledge the South is falling and neglects the true brutality of war. Lastly, Kaye Gibbons uses points of view to give a better understanding of how southerners feel about the South’s surrender. The soldiers at Emma’s house feel ecstatic to hear that the end of the war has come. The news of Appomattox is read aloud to them, “to which they cried a great ‘Hurrah!’” They are happy to hear that the war is over because they are tired of living a life of fighting and death, and now they can return to their normal lives. Likewise, the townspeople are happy to hear of the war’s end. They, too, are tired of seeing destruction on their own front lawns. When the U.S. ...