Generals Die In Bed

The narrator summarizes the soldiers’ routine: They spend six days in the front trenches, six days in support trenches, six days in artillery trenches, and then go on rest for five or six days. The routine repeats “endlessly in and out” (27). Despite different locations, everything is always the same: Lice, rats, corpses, and the noise of battle.

The narrator and his comrades now are in the frontline trenches. The parapet and the parados form the front and back walls of the trench; their parapet has been blown up. The loss of the parapet endangers the men, exposing them to fire coming down the length of the trench. The men have dug holes into the side of the parapet or parados for protection. The narrator reflects that the only reason they stay in the trench is because they have been trained for months to obey rules. Any infraction of a rule, no matter how trivial, results in punishment. It has made the men into robots who do what they are told.

When rations arrive, Brown divides their portions so that each person gets the same amount of food. Just as he is about to allocate the sugar ration, a sniper fires at him and he dies.