Secret Worth Keeping

 Authors Note~ This piece describes the point of view in the historical fiction book Soldier's Secret.

     Imagine men dying next to you. Laying there helpless, blood dripping down their face. Though your goal is to stay alive. While diesis spreading around like soft churned butter it is hard to be save out on the battle field.  Once I'll you must be sent to the infirmary, there you are surrounded by many other sick men. Laying on hay beds waiting for the nurses make their rounds, you worry.  Some may pretend to be dead like Robert Shurtliff, only then would he be put out of his misery,  the secret being reveled, his only fear.

     The fear of her fellow tent mates finding out she was Deborah Sampson. From her point of view we learn to understand the different ways to interrupt the Revolutionary War. She helps us understand they way women were treated in the 1700's. They were pretty much treated like cattle, they did everything for the mean cooked, cleaned, and all the errands. Yet they were never recognized, only their husbands. Deb wants that to change. She shows us the difficulty for a young women living in this time period. Since she was a give- away child she also under stood the rules of slavery. She was not allowed to be able to read, but she was able to learn her letters. Not being able to read that’s non-sense. She still did it anyways, also she taught her friend Jennie who was the slave of the house, how to read the Bible. This all goes to show women were not allowed to do anything.  Plus Deb saw everything from a different prospective. She didn’t want to be that little women standing over the oven all day and night. She wanted to be a hero. Tough this was highly frowned upon considering the fact she is female.

     All though this story is not written in the doctor’s point of view, what if it was? There would be no view of any battle scenes. We would be missing out on all the action and feeling behind Deborah's story. The doc knows everything about Deb. She wrote it all down for him; still we are yet to understand how she felt as a woman in her situation. The reason is because he is a male. As a male he will not understand the struggle of the women in which he is caring for.  As a man he will be able to understand why she thought it was so important to be in the war. Or why exactly she needed to go to the extreme of actually taking over a male figure. The doctor has a daughter or two. So he must find it unbelievable for any mother to allow her daughter to dress as a man and pursue such a dreadful deed in which a young woman shouldn't be allowed. He is a protective father he wants his daughters to know nothing about the soldier in their attic. So the doctor's story would have less meaning in regards to the message Deborah Sampson is trying to send.

     I am actually glad that this book is in the point of view of Deborah because it gives us a bit of an understanding of the women’s lives back in that time era. For any man to try to even come close to understanding is impossible. That’s why I enjoy what Deborah’s thoughts are. Also her adventure is magnificent it really grabs the reader. They want to know what happens to her next. They wonder if she will survive. As do I.