- page 19: "There's a moral here, said Mitchell Sanders."
This is a common phrase made when finishing a war story. This is an important motif since storytelling is one of the major themes of the book. The moral of the stories is either ridiculous or funny, or it is really a life lesson or new thing they have learned as a result of a certain situation. i think that it may also be a way to make a sad story humerous. An example would be on page 20 when the moral of the story of Lavendar's death is "Stay away from drugs..they'll ruin your day every time."(page 20). Yes, this is a true statement, but it is funny because really this is not a good moral to the story. We just heard a really depressing death story and the moral deals with drugs? I didn't think his death really had much to do with his use of drugs. (In addition, this phares presents irony because to Lavendar the drugs made his day better. Just wanted to point that out!)
Okay, so the motif really supports the theme of storytelling. On page 74, it says "In a true war story, if there's a moral at all, it's like the thread that makes the cloth". This shows that the motif of a moral is important because it makes the story. It makes the story worthwhile and able to be told over and over. This is just my thoughts on why the motif is important to this book.
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