Which two sentences in this excerpt from John Steinbeck's "Symptoms" address the theme of soldiers being reluctant to talk about their experience:
in war?
they had been reticent men it would have been different, but some of them were talkers and some were even boasters. They would discuss their
experiences right up O of the time of battle and then suddenly they wouldn't talk anymore.
This was considered heroic in them. t was thought that the
had seen or done was so horrible that they didn't want to bring i
back to haunt them or their listeners.
But many of these men had no such
consideration in any other field.
Only recently have I found what seems to be a reasonable explanation, and the answer is simple. They did not and do not remember--and the
worse the battle was, the less they remember.
