Summary

Chapter 3 opens with Thomas describing the Irish men in the army, commenting on their bad temper, uncivilized behavior, propensity for drinking, and vengeful disposition. He thinks back to his childhood years in Sligo, Ireland, and his immigration to America. His parents and sister “perished like stray cats” (29) during the Great Famine, after which, at the age of 13, Thomas underwent a grueling journey by ship to Canada “among the destitute, the ruined and the starving” (29). Many immigrants died from disease and he remembers feeling like “a plague” and a “human louse” (29). He argues that his difficult childhood desensitized him to violence, such that he could see “slaughter without flinching” (30). It is only when het met John Cole that Thomas felt “like a human person again” (30), and he subsequently refers to him as “my love” (30).

Thomas’s narration then jumps ahead to his early army...