| The General had given him this assignment because he knew he would hate it, and for that reason Hearn was determined to do a perfect jobHe became very finicky about sloppy items in the tent's construction, and once or twice had an argument with the sergeant in command of the detailAll very fine, but that seemed a little too shallow a satisfaction for the General
The lesson beneath the lesson appeared a little laterThe soldier who had been assigned to the operation of the generator in the daytime had been given the officers' recreation tent as an additional choreHe was supposed to furl the side flaps in the morning and let them down at night and fasten the sidesHe was also, since the noise of the generator was considered too loud to be used at night, supposed to fill all the Coleman lanterns with kerosene, and light them
Hearn went into the recreation tent one evening several days after it had been completed, and found it still darkA few officers were groping around and swearing to each other"Hey, Hearn," one of them called to him, women rolex watches "how about getting on the ball and giving us some light?"
He stalked over to the pup tent of the recreation tent orderly, and bawled him out"What's the matter, Rafferty, do you have too many jobs to handle?"
"Jesus, Lieutenant, I'm sorryI just forgot about it
"Well, all right, hop to it, don't stand there looking at me Hearn had found himself about to yell, "Get on the ball, man, will you," and after Rafferty got out of his tent and went jogging over to the motor pool to get some kerosene, Hearn had looked at him with disgustStupid ass, he thought, and immediately afterward, with a shock, he realized the trace of contempt he was beginning to feel for an enlisted manIt was slight, barely apparent, and yet it was thereThey had tried to balk him when they were building the tent, they had indulged every tiny advantage they couldThey had done it before they even worked with him, before they knew him; they had accepted him with an instinctive and immediate distrust, and he resented it
Suddenly he knew the General's lessonA new element black chanel quilted bag had been addedIn the past when he worked with enlisted men he had been tough because he considered his sympathies had no place in a particular jobWhen men worked they generally resented their leaderHe had not resented them
And now there were the beginnings of resentmentThe General's point was clear enoughHe was an officer, and in functioning as an officer for a long enough time he would assume, whether he wanted to or not, the emotional prejudices of his classThe General was reminding him that he belonged to that classHe remembered Cummings's pale baleful eyes staring at him blankly, and then the inexplicable wink"Have to keep you happy, Robert It was a little clearer nowHearn had known ever since he had been with the General that if he wanted to he could easily rise to a field officer's rank by the end of the warAnd there was an ambition in him which responded to that, an ambition he distrustedCummings recognized it, Cummings had effectively told him then that if he wanted to, if he was strong enough to overcome the distastes and omega usa prejudices he felt toward officers, he could satisfy that ambition
Understand your class and work within its limitsMarxist lesson with a reverse twist
It disturbed Hearn deeplyHe had been born in the aristocracy of the wealthy midwestern family, and although he had broken with them, had assumed ideas and concepts repugnant to them, he had never really discarded the emotional luggage of his first eighteen yearsThe guilts he made himself feel, the injustices that angered him were never genuineHe kept the sore alive by continually rubbing it, and he knew itHe knew also at this moment that out of all the reasons why he had begun to quarrel with Conn in officers' mess, one of the vital ones had been that he was afraid of not really caring enough about what Conn was sayingIt was true of too many of his reactionsAnd since his direct self-interest could only move him back toward the ideas of his father, there was no other direction for him to turn, unless there was some other emotional basis for continuing in his particular isolated position on the cartier tank louis LeftFor a long time he had thought there was one, for even a longer period he had sustained his politics because his friends and acquaintances in New York assumed them as a matter of course, but now in the isolation of the Army, under the searching critique of the General's mind, his fingers were being pulled from the chinning bar
He walked back to the recreation tent and went insideRafferty had filled the lamps and lit them, and already the evening influx of officers had begunTwo card games had been started, and several of the officers were beginning to use the writing tables
"Hey, Hearn, you want to come in on some poker?" It was Mantelli, one of Hearn's few friends in the headquarters Hearn pulled up a chairSince the tent had been set up, Hearn had spent his evenings here in unstated defiance of the GeneralActually he found it dull and uncomfortable, for it became tremendously hot inside and the air filled quickly with cigarette and cigar smoke, but this was a part of the continual sparring that went on between the General and louis cartier hims |
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