Sherwood Anderson Two Military Execution Quotation

It is said that in war soldiers lose their belief of equality.

Every human being is “imbued from infancy” that everyone is “born equal.” This is believed so young because no other child is of higher rank than another. If two kids get into a disagreement they handle it themselves and do not act like they were better by telling an adult. Most men are incapable of “unquestioning submission to authority.” As a soldier, the soldier must have this quality. As a recruit these morals are constantly said to a soldier. All soldiers dislike the submission to authority, but are forced to abide by it. Private Greene forgot these morals by “striking his officer.” These two men did grow up together and were equal as civilians, but in the military, they were far from equal in the eyes of the officer. Since the officer had loosed his sense of equality due to his shiny lieutenant stripe, he believed it was necessary to get his childhood friend executed. When a man gets authority over another, he will usually believe he is better than the lower men.