If another theme could be summed up in one word, it would be the question "Why?" The very fact that one of the major themes is a question is itself significant. It is a statement about war and about life. In both, there are more questions than answers. Life is uncertain. War is unfair. Both are confusing and at the mercy of things beyond your control. Ultimately, the only thing you can control is your reaction to it all. Based on who you are and what you feel, you make a choice of how to respond. Everything else is beyond our control, a question left in the hands of fate.
Some of the "whys" include:
Why write this book? The author mirrors the thoughts of Stephen Crane who explained that he wrote Red Badge of Courage because he "wanted to know what it was like to be there, what the weather was like, what men's faces looked like. In order to live it, he had to write it."
Shaara describes the heat of the day, the geography of the land, what the dust feels like on their faces as they march. He relates smells of death, sounds of battle, images of destroyed bodies. You see what they eat, what their clothes look like, and all the focused details that bring the reader into that place to "live" it.
