许玮琪
( 陕西师范大学陕 西省西安市 710000 )
Weiqi Xu
Shaanxi Normal University Xi’an City Shaanxi Province 710000
Abstract：The process of growth is not very smooth. Thomas who was the main character in this book was born in a special time and experienced a hard process of growth. The writer created Thomas’s growth and he wanted to let us understand that the most impressive thing in our growth is our pure childhood.
Key Words: Thomas Peaceful, Growth, Lost, Gain
1. The double nature of Growth in Private Peaceful
1.1 The life background of Thomas Peaceful-the First World War
The First World War was an impressive thing for Thomas because it influenced his growth. At first, Thomas didn’t want to join the army because he didn’t have enough age and he didn’t like the cruel things. However, the war made everybody in the village become nervous. People condemned Thomas’ behavior and thought Thomas was like a coward. In order to prove he was not a coward, Thomas told a lie about his age and joined the army with Charlie together. Thomas’s peaceful life was broken up by the cruel war and it urged him grew up quickly. He had no choice but face the farewell.
1.2 The positive character in Thomas Peaceful’s growth
1.2.1 Thomas Peaceful’s big brother-Big Joe
Big Joe had problem with his intelligence. The writer wanted to use Big Joe to represent the pure and clean spirit. Although Big Joe had problem with his intelligence, he was extremely optimistic.In the front line, Big Joe represented peace. The writer used Big Joe’s pure mind to have a contrast with the indifferent war so that he could tell the reader directly that Big Joe instantly helped Thomas keep his pure heart and beautiful mind and leaded Thomas to approach his hope and dream.
1.2.2 Thomas Peaceful’ s brother-Charlie Peaceful
Charlie shouldered everything of his family. He always had a big smile on his face and he always kept objective. Sometimes, he was tired but he still showed he was happy just like nothing happened to him. The reason why he did these things was that he didn’t want his family to worry about him.
Charlie thought family members meant everything to him. He took care of his family.Beforethe war coming to their hometown, Charlie had a happiness life. However, when he heard that Thomas joined into the army, he left his family and came to the front line to company his little brother.Charlie saved Thomas in a battle but from then on the sergeant had a grudge with him. This is the reason why Charlie died at the end of story.When he died Thomas was heart-broken and he had no choice but shouldered everything and became independent quickly.
1.2.3 Thomas Peaceful’s mother-Mrs. Peaceful
Mrs. Peaceful always taught them patiently and told her kids how to do things correctly could win everybody’s praise. When the captain threatened her that her kids would be dismissed from school, she still tried her best to strive for a glimmer of hope. When she knew the dismissed reason, she let her kids alone and let the captain punished her kids.
Mrs. Peaceful was the best guardian to her kids and she shouldered everything. She leaded her kids form a right attitude to their life. She did everything she could to make her kids become strong and kind person.
1.3 The negative character in Thomas Peaceful’s growth
Sergeant Hanley is the most important person in Thomas Peaceful’s life. In some aspects, we can think that he is an evil in the world. He ordered the other soldier kill Charlie because Charlie protected Thomas. He thought that Charlie’s behavior was not brave and suitable in the war.
Sergeant Hanley is an unkind soldier, he used his cruel criterion to judge a soldier whether he is good or bad. He made a false charge against Charlie and let Thomas lose his family member. His behavior made Thomas feel heart-broken. He used his behavior to let Thomas understand how ugly the human nature was! People could show their fake face to the person who won their respect and they could show their true face to the person who they always hated.
2. The Final change of Thomas Peaceful
2.1 The change of Thomas’s consciousness and idea
Thomas Peaceful’ s change came from the change of his consciousness and idea. When he fell into the trouble and realized that nobody could rely on, he pushed himself to be stronger to protect himself and shouldered the responsibility to his family. When his brother was killed without any judgement, he finally knew how dark the world was and how scared the human nature was. He knew how to judge a person. The destiny changed by the unfair judgement and played a joke with Charlie and Thomas.
Thomas had gone through many deaths and resurrection. These miserable costs called him from gloom and woke him up to see the cruelty and helplessness of the world then recognized the responsibilities on his shoulder, and let him be brave to face the reality.
2.2 The change of Thomas’s action
When the war happened, he realized that he could provide a humble effort to save his hometown. Therefore, this fragile boy became a mature person after he experienced a lot of misfortunes. He lost his father and brother because of his fear. Therefore, hefaced the war directly. He came to the front line to fight with the enemy and he shouldered his responsibility to his family after his brother died. He didn’t escape anymore.
Although the war was cruel, it speeded up the growing up step of Thomas Peaceful. It had a positive effect to Thomas Peaceful. Thomas had learnt how to be strong from the war and he had realized he had great responsibility to take care of his family member.
3. Conclusion
Private Peaceful lets us feel the pain in life, even lets us feel the cruel war. When we finish reading this book and at the moment that we closed this book we can understand that even all things and people disappear with time, our memory just like the path of growing up companies us forever.
BIBLIGROPHY
[1]许浚瑶. 成长小说视阈下的《柑橘与柠檬啊》的研究[D].辽宁大学,2019.
[2]芮渝萍，范谊著.成长的风景当代美国成长小说研究[M].北京：商务印书馆.2012.
作者简介：
许玮琪（1995.9—），女，汉族，籍贯：江苏泰州人，陕西师范大学教育学院，19级在读研究生，硕士学位，专业：小学教育，研究方向：批判性思维