Tricked

Henry, the Youth, is a young man working for his mother on the family farm. He believes in the virtues of courage, honor and nobility. He longs to put his courage to the test so that he can prove his manhood.

Henry leaves his mother and enlists in the army, putting on the clothes of a hero: the blue and the gold. He wonders if he can be worthy of them. He deeply believes in the worthiness of virtues but he is paralyzed by the fear that he cannot attain these virtues. He longs so much to attain them.

His first battle doesn't test his courage, but he thinks it has. He is puffed up with pride, until another skirmish follows, immediately, and he runs in panic when he sees his fellows flee. Wandering in the woods, he tries to justify his flight. He compares himself to his comrades. He compares himself to a frightened squirrel. He cannot bear to think that he is a coward. Coming upon some soldiers on a road, he sees many are wounded. He longs for a wound. He longs for a visible mark, to join the ranks of the worthy, the virtuous. He even wishes for death, because he believes that the dead have attained true heroism.

Certain events begin to impress themselves on Henry's brain, and the impressions challenge his faith in what he has believed to be worthy of his devotion. First, he sees a dead soldier under a tree. This man is dead, therefore a hero. But he is a terrifying sight, and his life is over. Then, Henry sees his friend, the tall soldier, die. He dies so bravely...but so horribly. He, too, is a hero, but so tragic a one. Time and again, Henry sees the wounded, the dying, and the dead; the badged, the courageous, and the heroic. But Henry begins to think that to strive for the status of Hero is folly or suicide.

Henry does gain the title he longs for, but it comes to him in such an inglorious way as to be ridiculous. Henry gets bashed in the head and many mistake it for battle wound. They call him brave. Henry finds that he has tricked his fellows. But he cannot trick himself. He knows he is not yet a hero, not yet a man. Later, Henry wants badly to rest, but another battle calls on him to fight. He is so angry for wanting his earned reprieve that he fights like an animal. Again, he is called brave. But he wonders why, because he acted like a machine or animal, not a man.

When Henry finally becomes the hero truly, by seizing the fallen flag, he no longer wants the title. Marching back to camp after this final battle, Henry reflects over his experiences. He is dissatisfied with all his failures and finds even the pedestal of his successes to be unstable. He only experiences absolute peace when he casts off his former thinking, namely the worthiness of his devotions. Virtues were nothing but divine trickery. Just as he had fooled his fellows with his "badge" the badges had fooled him. The soldier need not sacrifice for such sham laurels, he need only survive. Henry now turns with a "lover's thirst to images of tranquil skies, fresh meadows, cool brooks--an existence of soft and eternal peace." And yet, in this final scene he claims the title "Man" for his own.