Nature

Nature is a predominant force in the novel, and serves as a vast backdrop for the novel against which the conflicts between soldiers seems small and insignificant. Nature is represented by the vast untamed tracts of land outside the walls of Fort Phil Kearny, and at times serves as an antagonist and impassive force to the characters in the novel. The relationship between nature and man is the first theme the reader notices in the novel, as Section I begins with an excerpt from the Walt Whitman poem "This Compost". In the excerpt, the narrator questions how nature can possibly remain pure when man has committed so many "distemper'd corpses" (1) to the earth.

Man's corruption and destruction of nature thus becomes an inciting incident for much of the novel's conflict. Michael himself begins his and Tom's journey with the incident of the farmer's calf, which Tom...