The Fighting Ground

by Avi

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Discussion Topic

Jonathan's Complex Relationship with Hessians and Americans in The Fighting Ground

Summary:

In Avi's The Fighting Ground, Jonathan, a young soldier, experiences a complex relationship with both Hessians and Americans. Initially fearful of the Hessians due to their reputation as ruthless mercenaries, Jonathan finds comfort in their company after being captured, realizing they are ordinary men like his own troops. However, he also fears the Americans after discovering they killed a boy's parents, mistaking them for Tories. Disillusioned by both sides, Jonathan ultimately becomes weary of war.

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In "The Fighting Ground," why is Jonathan, who fears Hessians, glad to be with them?

There are two reasons why Jonathan is glad to be with the Hessians.  After the horror and confusion of his first enemy encounter, Jonathan is separated from his band and finds himself lost and alone.  He feels "a terrible loneliness...he did not know what to do or where to go" (3:16).  Though initially terrified when he is captured by the Hessians, he finds they treat him decently, and though he tries to keep his hatred for them alive, before long "all he could muster was the desire to stand close to them, to be taken care of" (4:10).  Jonathan feels that he has alienated his parents through disobedience and shamed himself as a soldier through his cowardice - "there seemed to be nothing left of his past", and he began to wonder if the Hessians were his only remaining friends" (4:10).

The second reason is because Jonathan begins to realize the Hessians are just people not much different from himself.  He "had never seen enemy soldiers" (2:43) before, and the Hessians were indeed an impressive looking force with a reputation for fierceness and mercilessness.  Once he has been among them awhile, however, he sees that, individually, they are simple men much like those in his own troops, and in his mind the line between friend and foe becomes blurred.  Ironically, at the story's end, Jonathan finds that the American soldiers act even more barbarically than the Hessians.

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Why is Jonathan afraid of both Hessians and Americans in The Fighting Ground?

In Avi's novel The Fighting Ground, thirteen-year-old Jonathan disobeys his father by taking up a gun to fight with several local militiamen against a party of Hessian soldiers. Things fall apart quickly as both sides open fire, and, terrified, Jonathan dashes into the woods.

Jonathan has a good reason to be frightened of Hessians. They are well-known throughout the area as "butchers" and mercenaries who kill for pay. They are ruthless. Further, when Jonathan sees his fellow Americans falling wounded and maybe even dead, he cannot stand the confusion any longer. The Hessians are too close, and they are shooting.

But Jonathan does not free himself from the Hessians in the woods. In fact, he is caught by three of them and taken prisoner. He cannot understand German, so he does not know how to obey their orders. They tie him and make him go with them. They reach a small log house where Jonathan finds a little boy whose parents have been killed. One of the Hessians helps Jonathan bury the man and woman, and at this point, Jonathan believes that the Hessians must have killed them, giving him yet another reason to be afraid. As soon as the Hessians go to sleep, Jonathan takes the little boy and escapes.

Jonathan and the little boy make their way back to the American militiamen. Here, however, he makes a horrifying discovery that causes him fear his fellow Patriots. The boy's parents were not killed by the Hessians; they were murdered in cold blood by the Americans who believe them to be Tories (loyalists to the British) and spies. Jonathan is especially afraid of the heartless Corporal, who only wants to use him to trap and kill the Hessians.

When it is all over and the Hessians are dead and Jonathan has made sure the little boy has a home, he himself goes home. He is tired of war, tired of fear, and ready to obey his father.

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