Courage and Calculations

While reading Good-Bye to All That, I noticed that Graves always tries to have a rationale for his actions. Even though one expects a writer to attempt to further explain and back up his actions in memoir-esque fashion, I was struck by the moments when he relates the thoughts that went through his mind in moments during the war. For example, on page 131, he explains, "I went on patrol fairly often, finding that the only thing respected in young officers was personal courage." As readers, we expect to hear of his bravery in these moments, and perhaps an account of the acts of courage he performed in order to earn the respect of his fellow soldiers. Yet he goes on to describe how his actions are all calculated:

Besides, I had cannily worked it out like this. My best way of lasting through to the end of the War would be to get wounded. The best time to get wounded would be at night and in the open, with rifle-fire more or less unaimed and my whole body exposed. Best, also, to get wounded when there was no rush on the dressing-station services, and while the back areas were not being heavily shelled. Best to get wounded, therefore, on a night patrol in a quiet sector. One could usually manage to crawl into a shell-hole until help arrived. (131)

 I wondered if he applied the same methods that he uses to create poetry to his survival in the war--working through everything step-by-step, revising his plan until he has reached a plan of action that he can live with. However, on the following page, he tells that his matter-of-fact reasoning is commonplace in the trenches. He tells, "Like everyone else, I had a carefully worked out formula for taking risks" (132). This seems to suggest that they needed to analyze their actions in order to give some sort of meaning to their choices. By having a carefully reasoned plan, the soldiers are able to give themselves solace, believing that their lives and deaths are not just left to chance. Here, the soldiers not only have to fight in the war, but they also have to fight against their fears of not having control of the outcome.

This segment on courage became even more insightful after reading the following quote on page 318: "I also suggested that the men who had died, destroyed as it were by the fall of the Tower of Siloam, were not particularly virtuous or particularly wicked, but just average soldiers, and that survivors should thank God they were alive, and do their best to avoid wars in the future."