Guide Mentor

Character Role Analysis

Jim Conklin

"The Tall Soldier" comes the closet to being a guide or mentor to Henry. Jim is continually unruffled by the vagaries of army life. He will happily contemplate eating a sandwich two seconds after the shooting has stopped. He is not a pushover, though; he is quite practical and stands up for his own thoughts and ideas. He is older and behaves in a calm, mature fashion that Henry envies but doesn’t know how to imitate. When Jim dies it is a huge blow to Henry – almost as if his father or his God had died.