Portrayal of German soldiers in Company K William March’s novel Company K is told from the point of view of American soldiers, precisely 113 members of this company. The stories revolve around their experiences and feelings. Along with everything they go through, from everyday routine to their involvement in the battlefields, we also find out something about German soldiers. Since they were enemies and were physically close, there is no surprise that the two opposite sides came in touch. There are several stories depicting German soldiers, in which we discover that they are very similar to American soldiers, just normal human beings used as pawns in the horrible reality of war. First of all, before Americans came to European soil, and even after the arrival, they were fed with gruesome stories of crimes committed by Germans. In the story of Private Marvin Mooney, we see him telling a wounded, helpless German soldier “"It was different when you were raping Red Cross Nurses and cutting of the legs of children in Belgium, wasn't it?” (173) before killing him mercilessly. But, in the story of Private Mark Mumford, we see the point of view a German soldier boy has on Americans. He is deathly afraid of them and exclaims that “he'd rather be killed outright than taken prisoner, because the Americans chopped off the hands and feet of all …show more content…
Religion is very important to Americans, for some it was their driving force in WWI, an important reason to keep fighting. To compare soldiers in this sphere is giving the final evidence of how similar they really are. There is a powerful quote from Private Howard Nettleton’s story doing just that: “I’m going to ask him if he doesn't know that the Germans are praying too. - 'Let's be logical about this thing,' I'm going to say; 'Let's pick out different Gods to pray to. It seems silly for both sides to be praying to the same one!’”