11 Response to Charlie Peaceful chapters 1 and 2 of Private Peaceful

This Post does contain spoilers for the book and movie Private Peaceful

In the first and second chapters, Michael Morpurgo sets Charlie up for his role later in the book. One example of this is on pages 31 and 32, where he fights Jimmy Parsons so that his little brother stays safe, and gets punished for it later. Towards the end of the book, during an attack where they are pinned down in a bunker with a machine gun aimed at the exit, the commander orders for them to leave the safety of the bunker and continue the attack. Charlie goes against the order, instead choosing to stay with Thomas, who is injured. He is later court marshaled for his act of cowardice and ends up being sentenced to a firing squad, and dies. Another small piece of foreshadowing also appears between the first and second chapters to the rest of the book. On page 17, Mr Munnings, Charlie’s teacher, talks about gaining another Peaceful in the school, asking what he did to deserve this. This leads the reader to believe that Charlie acts up in class, and doesn’t respect the authority in his life. Later on in the book, during their training for the war, Charlie is the only one to stand up to their Sergeant, when nobody else seemed to have the courage too. This shows both his bravery from a young age, and how it transitioned into his life at war, and also how he did not have respect for authority, and still doesn’t. Charlie is a very important character to the story, and the first 2 chapters set him up for the rest of the book well.