Four Steps To Death #2

               In the novel "Four Steps To Death" by John Wilson, there were several issues that Conrad, Sergei, and Vasily, the novel´s main characters, had to face as the war keeps going on. This issues were most likely affecting the way they see their life, but also how they act under certain circumstances, such as living in a high-stress environment, or having the feeling of guilty on the decisions the had been making.

               One of them is patriotism, this issue is one of the strongest obstacles main characters were facing in the novel. But patriotism was not influencing Sergei, who is the little kid in the novel, but it did affect Conrad and Vasily, who are the armies´ soldiers. Patriotism played a significant role during this novel, because it did not affected physically to these main characters, but it did affected them psychologically. The way patriotism affected these main characters is that as the war keeps going on Conrad and Vasily had to face the consequences of being part of an army, that it killing other human being. I believe that being art of a soldier in a war, is basically knowing that you have to kill other people, but as the novel keeps going on the reader can observe how these soldiers killing other affects the way to see things around them.

               I think that one of the themes of the novel is shown throughout the character´s beliefs & reactions underpression. I think that one's patriotism in which your General gives you orders that go against your beliefs such as killing a person leads into a high-stress and high-trauma enviroment to the main character, which psychologically tears him apart.