How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #10
Down the road came twenty or thirty tired and ragged men. Some were bloodstained. No uniforms. A curious arsenal of weapons. The long horizontal light of the sinking sun struck into their faces and made them seem much alike. Thin-faced in the manner of Yankee men. High cheek-boned. Unalterably determined. The tired men marched unevenly, but Johnny noticed the swing of the lithe, independent bodies. The set of chin and shoulders. Rab had been like that.
Please God, out of this New England soil such men would forever rise up ready to fight when need came. The one generation after the other. (12.5.53-54)
This troop is the last thing Johnny observes in the novel—it's the image Forbes chooses to leave her readers with. The men don't have individual features, and instead are symbolic of the men of New England who will fight for liberty at any time. Forbes calls out to her World War II-era readers, encouraging them to fight for the same liberty their ancestors fought for. It's easy to gloss over historic distinctions with words like liberty, though. In what ways were the ideals and concepts fought for in the Revolutionary War and World War II similar? How were they different?