General in bed chapter reviews
GENERALS DIE IN BED – Charles Yale Harrison
JR’s TEACHER NOTES
Explain and speculate what the title of the novel is inferring about the Generals.
A.
The title is a pun or is having a go at the generals.
Generals die in bed while the soldiers die on the front lines.
Generals don’t fight. Instead they command soldiers from a safe distance behind the frontlines
The title suggests that there is a total lack of respect for generals or for people in positions of power/ authority. If this happens in war then there is a breakdown in the chain of command, therefore making it difficult to win the war itself.
Glossary
Compile a comprehensive list of words/ terms/ phrases/ places from the text and from the period in which the novel is set in. These words and terms should then feature in your coursework and text responses.
Trench warfare
Western Front
Alliance
Mother Country
Over the top
No mans land
Parapet
Sniper
Artillery
Shell Shock
Shrapnel
Minewerfer – mine throwing trench mortars
Parados – the wall of the trench
Blighty – England
Bosch/ Heine – derogatory term for a German
Estaminet – French café
Propaganda – exaggerating the truth
Lice/ louse – small parasitic insect
Funk-hole – a cavity carved out of the inside of the trench
Raid
Interrogation
Quotes
Choose at least 3 quotes per chapter and attach who said it and a page number.
Chapter 1 - Recruits
Major events and observations:
A final night of booze and sex with prostitutes before going to war
Anderson’s pleas to the men to stop misusing/ abusing their bodies
The 17 year old recruit vomiting
The euphoric fanfare of war
The narrator considering fleeing with the girl he has just met
Quotes
1. “…God didn’t make your bodies for that”. – Anderson
2. “I grip her arm tightly. I think I could slip away unseen with her”. – Narrator
3. “A young lad, not more than seventeen, staggers to the centre of the room and retches into a slop-can” – Narrator p.12
4. “She is the last link between what I am leaving and
JR’s TEACHER NOTES
Explain and speculate what the title of the novel is inferring about the Generals.
A.
The title is a pun or is having a go at the generals.
Generals die in bed while the soldiers die on the front lines.
Generals don’t fight. Instead they command soldiers from a safe distance behind the frontlines
The title suggests that there is a total lack of respect for generals or for people in positions of power/ authority. If this happens in war then there is a breakdown in the chain of command, therefore making it difficult to win the war itself.
Glossary
Compile a comprehensive list of words/ terms/ phrases/ places from the text and from the period in which the novel is set in. These words and terms should then feature in your coursework and text responses.
Trench warfare
Western Front
Alliance
Mother Country
Over the top
No mans land
Parapet
Sniper
Artillery
Shell Shock
Shrapnel
Minewerfer – mine throwing trench mortars
Parados – the wall of the trench
Blighty – England
Bosch/ Heine – derogatory term for a German
Estaminet – French café
Propaganda – exaggerating the truth
Lice/ louse – small parasitic insect
Funk-hole – a cavity carved out of the inside of the trench
Raid
Interrogation
Quotes
Choose at least 3 quotes per chapter and attach who said it and a page number.
Chapter 1 - Recruits
Major events and observations:
A final night of booze and sex with prostitutes before going to war
Anderson’s pleas to the men to stop misusing/ abusing their bodies
The 17 year old recruit vomiting
The euphoric fanfare of war
The narrator considering fleeing with the girl he has just met
Quotes
1. “…God didn’t make your bodies for that”. – Anderson
2. “I grip her arm tightly. I think I could slip away unseen with her”. – Narrator
3. “A young lad, not more than seventeen, staggers to the centre of the room and retches into a slop-can” – Narrator p.12
4. “She is the last link between what I am leaving and