What are you going to do if your girlfriend asks you to give up your life for your country? The first thing I will do is pick up my cell phone to call my family doctor to schedule an appointment to check my ears and make sure they are working well, or I can put on a strong emotional face to ask her, "Are you serious"" Most people would not want to see the person they love go off to a place where they could possibly die. In William Dean Howells' short story, "Editha", however, the main character is an unusual woman, Editha, who has her own perfect ideals and pushes them on her lover, George, to ask him to fight in the Spanish-American War. In the story Howells not only brought his anti-war message about the dangers of war but also satirized the United States' governments that...