Leadership

Leadership is a theme that is of major importance in the novel. The young Lt. Donovan struggled in his role as a leader of platoon and often regretted the choices he’d made once he returned to civilian life. As bad a leader as Donovan believed he had been, there are other characters in the novel who show examples of bad leadership. In contrast, there are also those who set good examples of leadership. It is not until Donovan returned home from war and was taking a business ethics class that he realized that empathy was one important characteristic of a good leader.

Although Paige Dufossat had been criticized by her business ethics teacher for suggesting that a business had failed because of a lack of empathy, it was an idea that got Donovan thinking. He believed that Major Leighton his senior officer could have used...