Therefore, it could be argued that his function is merely to serve as a surrogate for the audience. The story possesses a unique style in that we learn next to nothing about its main character and first person narrator. Like the poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, or such European novels as Henri Barbusse's Under Fire, or Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, Generals Die in Bed attempts to strip war of its romance and glamour, to show the real experiences of men at war. Generals and civilians spew patriotic slogans without ever truly understanding the horror of trench life. The novel focuses heavily on the vanity of war and how many of the soldiers were naive, fighting for ideals. The illumination of the truth brings with it the realization that war is a game of strategy fought between generals, and soldiers are the ones who suffer. At this point, the soldiers learn that the ship sunk by the Germans was, in fact, carrying weapons. The narrator's wound takes him out of action, although the war continues. To motivate the troops for an offensive, a senior officer tells the troops of the Germans sinking a hospital ship during this bloody confrontation, the narrator receives a wound, and Broadbent dies after his leg is nearly severed from his body. Upon his return to the trenches, the Canadians suffer heavy losses in a trench raid at this point, Broadbent is the lone survivor of the narrator's friends. However, everyday incidents –- such as a burlesque show that marginalizes the cost of war by adapting the imagery of war for public amusement –- remind the anonymous soldier of the separation between the "home front" and the trenches. He goes on his leave to England, a 10-day period during which a prostitute does everything in her power to help him forget the war. The narrator becomes further affected by the death of another friend it is at this point he begins to become exhausted by the horrors of war. Later, the narrator finds himself deeply disturbed when he bayonets a German soldier during a raid this trauma is magnified by the narrator's subsequent camaraderie with the brother of the soldier he killed when together they endure shelling.
While he once thought of war as glorious, the narrator faces the reality of hard combat and his friends begin to die. The story follows the soldiers into the Western Front trench lines where they begin to experience the war of attrition being fought there. This Canadian World War I narrative begins in Montreal, where an unnamed young soldier is among Canadian troops of a variety of ages preparing to deploy to France and the war.
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