What did you think of Weybridge’s soldiers leaving him to die? Were they right to do so under the circumstances? What decision would you have made, do you think?
I believe that the scared young soldiers that were left to watch over Weybridge felt that he was going to die soon anyway, and nothing was going to change if they stayed. They probably also felt that their own lives were more in danger the longer they stayed. Being a nurse, I think I would have stayed until he no longer had a pulse.
Bohjalian cleverly did not reveal precisely why those soldiers left Jonathan to die. It was intimated that their unit was moving on and they had to go with their fellow soldiers back into battle, but there was also speculation that they voluntarily left out of fear. Either way, I can’t imagine leaving another human being alone to die in those conditions. It was heartless and unspeakably cruel. Even if Jonathan’s chances of survival were slim, someone should have remained with him. Sadly, war requires horrible choices. And it was a powerful plot device used deftly by Bohjalian to demonstrate that point. Or so I thought until I read his notes and learned that the novel was inspired by an actual incident! In September 1864, a Lieutenant was left to die after losing a leg and three fingers when a General moved his army. The doctors “feared the jostling of a hospital wagon would kill him – though, it seems, they also expected him to die soon enough inside on a farmhouse floor,” Bohjalian writes. He was discovered by a formerly enslaved woman who alerted her husband and the owner of the land upon which they resided, who was intent on saving him. He was hidden and a doctor’s silence was bought just as in the book!
At first it seemed a horrible thing to do. But wax the most “practical “ considering the situation
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I think that the soldiers were young and decided to go with their unit because Weybridge would die soon anyhow. They probably also thought that they would be shot or imprisoned if discovered, or imprisoned if another unit found them.
I agree. I think they thought he would die anyway.
My emotions are mixed on this. War in any century has been hellish, especially for front-line soldiers. This is a work of fiction, but I feel that many soldiers were left behind in similar circumstances. I think it was heart-breaking, but a good springboard for the story to advance.
I think that for that time period, it was probably a very accurate account of what would have happened…it may seem heartless to us, but in times of war, the soldiers had to think of the good of all and not get caught up in saving each individual. Im not sure what decision I would have made… it would have been hard to leave him to die, I’m sure!