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Walsh and his Wife
The scene between Walsh and his wife between pages 85-88 reveals a lot about Walsh both as a man and a soldier. Walsh is a man struggling with a lot of pressure to keep high principles as a soldier and, at the same time, keep his responsibility as a man. Walsh is a man that has had to assume many roles to survive. He has experienced death, cruelty, racism and betrayal. From the scene with his wife Mary, it’s made clear that Walsh is struggling with so much inner and outer turbulence that conflicts his fight for moral survival. On one side, he feels obliged to fulfill his duties as a soldier and see to it that he obeys orders given to him on ensuring that the Sioux tribe is exiled back to the United States from Canada. Having seen the cruelty, death, racism, and betrayal, it’s clear in his mind that once he obliges with the orders, he would not only be sending the Sioux tribe especially its leader Sitting Bull to face trial but it would be a death sentence for them as they would likely be persecuted.
Walsh struggles to hold on to his beliefs that the Sioux people have been through a lot. They have been held down for too long, forced to even move places, and have been cheated and lied to countless times. Despite the tribulations, the Sioux people are a resilient tribe that despite all continues to hold their heads up high and what they seek is some justice for all the pain. As a soldier, Walsh swore an oath to serve, but that oath and that would mean serving all without prejudice. Though he feels a sense of responsibility to Sioux and Sitting Bull as they have become his friends and would want to help them through their struggle for respect and justice, he is forced against his better judgement and to uphold his duty of a soldier and complete his orders as communicated.