Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Overview… a lawyer in peacetime who has taken an officer’s role in the First World War. But Colonel Dax is no detached warmonger – he’s down in the trenches with his men, fighting the good fight for the glorious country of France. Dax has become disillusioned as of late, especially when he faces duplicitous and cowardly generals who can’t seem to understand the horrors of war. When his regiment gets into trouble with the nefarious General Mireau, Dax has to defend his own men against his own commanding officer.
Personality… upstanding, tough, and intelligent. Colonel Dax has the mind of a lawyer and the heart of a soldier, but that doesn’t mean that he’s willing to fight any fool’s war. Dax isn’t susceptible to the nationalistic fervor that grips his commanding officers. He’ll gladly quote Samuel Johnson to a General, claiming that patriotism “is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
Get to Know him in...
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During World War I, commanding officer General Broulard orders his subordinate, General Mireau, to attack a German trench position, offering a promotion as an incentive. Though the mission is foolhardy to the point of suicide, Mireau commands his own subordinate, Colonel Dax, to plan the attack. When it ends in disaster, General Mireau demands the court-martial of three random soldiers in order to save face.
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The anti-war masterpiece that became an iconic motion picture-now with a foreword by the creator of the acclaimed HBO(tm) series The Wire
Familiar to many as the Stanley Kubrick film starring Kirk Douglas, Paths of Glory explores the perilous complications involved in what nations demand of their soldiers in wartime. Humphrey Cobb's protagonists are Frenchmen during the First World War whose nightmare in the trenches takes a new and terrible turn when they are ordered to assault a German position deemed all but invulnerable. When the attack fails, an inquiry into allegations of cowardice indicts a small handful of lower-ranked scapegoats whose trial exposes the farce of ordering ordinary men to risk their lives in an impossible cause. A chilling portrait of injustice, this novel offers insight into the tragedies of war in any age.
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