Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Living… as he would put it,“in a world that’s blowing itself to hell as fast as everybody can arrange it.” Such is First Sergeant Edward Welsh’s assessment of the situation. The year is 1942. Sgt. Welsh is aboard a Navy transport with the men of C Company, headed straight for Guadalcanal. As the troop carrier nears the Japanese-held island, intense internal tension builds within each man. C Company is approaching what is sure to be a fight – one they all know will cost many lives.
Profession… U.S. Army First Sergeant in C Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. His main responsibility is to keep up the chain of command and ensure that his men stay in line. Sgt. Welsh sees himself as a taskmaster, a man whose job is to make sure each man does his. He espouses the belief that all a man is his job. He says that beyond surviving and doing your job, there’s nothing you can do for anybody else. This is what the sergeant says – whether he believes it or not is another question.
Interests… being alone. While the men socialize, and drink (provided they have liquor), Sgt. Welsh sits by himself in a secluded spot, smoking a cigarette. Sgt. Welsh entertains only his own interests, which he keeps to himself entirely.
Relationship Status… none. Though many of the men have girls back home, Sgt. Welsh makes no mention of having a lover or, for that matter, anyone to go home to.
Challenge… finding a reason to fight. It seems there’s nothing for a man to do but look out for himself; hold onto what’s his. That is, unless there’s some kind of higher purpose to serve. Such is the central issue at stake in the conversations had between Welsh and Witt, a private in C Company. Witt espouses the belief that there’s something more to all this mess than survival. But Sgt. Welsh has a different view. He tells Private Witt, “In this world, a man, himself, is nothing. And there ain’t no world but this one.”
Personality… cynical, despairing, and misanthropic. Though there’s also a deeper courage and resolve that Welsh possesses, hidden beneath his intensely reserved appearance.
Get to Know him in...
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Based on the graphic novel by James Jones, The Thin Red Line tells the story of a group of men, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer, and ultimately make essential discoveries about themselves during the fierce World War II battle of Guadalcanal. It follows their journey, from the surprise of an unopposed landing, through the bloody and exhausting battles that follow, to the ultimate departure of those who survived. A powerful frontline cast - including Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Woody Harrelson and George Clooney - explodes into action in this hauntingly realistic view of military and moral chaos in the Pacific during World War II.
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They are the men of C-for-Charlie company—“Mad” 1st Sgt. Eddie Welsh, Pvt. 1st Class Don Doll, Pvt. John Bell, Capt. James Stein, Cpl. Fife, and dozens more just like them—infantrymen who are about to land, grim and white-faced, on an atoll in the Pacific called Guadalcanal. This is their story, a shatteringly realistic walk into hell and back.
In the days ahead, some will earn medals, others will do anything they can dream up to get evacuated before they land in a muddy grave. But they will all discover the thin red line that divides the sane from the mad—and the living from the dead—in this unforgettable portrait that captures for all time the total experience of men at war.
Foreword by Francine Prose
“Brutal, direct, and powerful . . . The men are real, the words are real, death is real, imminent and immediate.”—Los Angeles Times
“A rare and splendid accomplishment . . . strong and ambitious, spacious, and as honest as any novel ever written.”— Newsweek
“[A] major novel of combat in World War II . . . reminiscent of Stephen Crane in The Red Badge of Courage.”—The Christian Science Monitor
“The Thin Red Line moves so intensely and inexorably that it almost seems like the war it is describing.”—The New York Times Book Review
