In this passage, a young soldier is preparing himself for his first battle of the American Civil War. Various veterans had told him tales. Some talked of gray, bewhiskered hordes who were advancing with relentless curses and chewing
tobacco with unspeakable valor, tremendous bodies of fierce soldiery who were sweeping along like the Huns. Others spoke of tattered and
eternally hungry men who fired despondent powders.
Still, he could not put a whole faith in veterans' tales, for recruits were their prey. They talked much of smoke, fire, and blood, but he could
not tell how much might be lies. They persistently yelled "Fresh fish!" at him, and were in no wise to be trusted.
However, he perceived now that it did not greatly matter what kind of soldiers he was going to fight so long as they fought, which fact no
one disputed. There was a more serious problem. He lay in his bunk pondering upon it. He tried to mathematically prove to himself that he would
not run from a battle,
Which describes how the young soldier's behavior reveals a moral dilemma?
1. His agitation about how he will perform reveals his fear that he is secretly a coward,
2. His feeling that the laws of life are useless makes him fear that he is becoming an outlaw.
3. His lack of trust in the older soldiers reveals that he fears he is losing his faith in humanity.
4. His feeling that it doesn't matter who he is going to fight reveals that he is losing his compassion,