Voices of a Grunts Prayer Drops of sweat collect on the soldiers brow as he clenches his rigid jaw tightly to restrain

the agonizing cries and screams struggling to escape past his lips into the open air and into the ears of his comrades. Shrouded by darkness he fights with all his might to overcome the darkness, but his focus wavers due to the waves of pain washing over him, subduing his conscious. He regains his consciousness for a short moment, and in that moment his emotions go into a flurry only leaving fear, remorse, and hope recognizable. Fear on the battlefield grips the heart of many soldiers. According to A Grunts Prayer, the fear of death is not what a soldier may be most afraid of. The voice of fear present in A Grunts Prayer expresses many rational fears that a soldier in battle may experience, such as losing limbs, going blind, losing the ability to hear, and falling victim to seditious thoughts. All of the previously listed fears lead to a fear that may be worse than death to some; that fear is not being able to return to everyday life before battle. Having to live without legs requires many changes to everyday life, for example having to adapt to using a wheelchair, moving from a multiple level home to a single level home to avoid the building of ramps and accidents on stairs, or rearranging household items for easy accessibility. Changes in the lives of loved ones can also result from the loss of limbs in times of war. Loved ones may have to be deeply involved in the rehabilitation process, which can be heartbreaking to watch, and after rehabilitation family members may be required to constantly assist the wounded soldiers with everyday task that people can normally do on their own, acting as a constant reminder of the suffering a loved one had to experience. The voice of remorse is very apparent in the emotional writing of A Grunts Prayer. The challenges associated with having to choose between ones faith and ones comrade is also present. In A Grunts Prayer, the narrator asks for forgiveness after breaking Gods
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commandments, which shows remorse, but feelings of remorse are more heavily drawn upon by observing the narrators dilemma regarding whether he should break the commandments, or become a traitor in the eyes of his comrades. It leaves him in a situation where there seems to be no resolution: either he kills and goes against his faith, or he disobeys his leaders and becomes a coward. Neither situation is favorable, but he chooses to go against his faith, so that he may survive, which gives him the opportunity to show remorse in another form, repentance. The repentance comes from his desire of the forgiveness of sins. Amidst all the fear and remorse that the narrator is expressing through the use of voices there is hope, the beacon in the distance guiding the lost back to the safety of land. The narrator uses hope as the anchor that keeps him stable, but in this case he is not hoping much for himself. Instead he hopes for the peace of mind of the people he had to leave behind. In lines forty-eight through fifty-one of A Grunts Prayer, the narrator expresses hope through his prayer, which involves him praying that his mothers greatest concern is that he changes his shorts. For others he prays that time blurs from days into weeks, and that their days are not full of confusion, but understanding. The narrator asks for himself, that he may only be granted the time he needs to finish what he must do. The narrator is truly voicing his hopes for himself and his loved ones by seeking their peace instead of only his own survival. In conclusion, the narrator makes audible the voices of fear, remorse, and hope to express the drastic changes in everyday life that can result from war, the ensuing moral struggle that is the result of choosing between faith and comrades, and the hope not for ones self, but for the loved one in ones life. Frontline soldiers make important life changing sacrifices for the people and countries they love. Although they face many challenges and dangers they continue to march on. A Grunts Prayer allows readers to understand the fear, remorse, and hope largely present in the characters of these soldiers.

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