Kate Aguinaldo Stem 11-2

A Brief Opinion on The Short Story

The story was kind of funny; I just don't know if I comprehended it correctly. I have
a lot of points of view on this that may be a bit confusing. So, the first one is, how could he have
cut the other arm if he had already lost one? Well, let's say he really managed to hold the sword
and strike it against his arm to cut it. But, imagine how painful that was. You couldn't just endure
the pain and strike the sword against your arm one more time. You will most likely drop that
sword as you feel weak because of the pain, and you will most likely hesitate if you continue to
cut your arm. Another thing to consider is that it's not that easy to cut your arm. It has bones, so
it could take a lot of strikes before you could cut it. In that case, if we are going to be realistic in
the story, Napoleon or the emperor would have stopped him before he successfully cut his arm.
They couldn't just let him do that. They had their own minds to think about the right thing to do.
So obviously, you could say that this story was unrealistic and impossible. In other cases, let's
imagine that he successfully cut his arm. I understand that the man just wanted to have a legion
of honor, as it was the highest French order of honor. But the Legion of Honor is something that
would be awarded to you when you did something for your country that was indeed honorable.
What he did was nothing honorable at all. He didn't even take time to think about what he was
doing. Isn't that pathetic? He would just cut his other arm, thinking that he would get another
legion of honor by doing that. It doesn't make sense at all, and he was sacrificing his other arm
for nothing. Also, the emperor was referring to losing his arms "for the country," whereas
Napoleon meant that if the soldier lost both arms "for the country," he would have given him two
legions of honor. But what he did was not for the country; it's just that he cut his other arm
without even realizing what the emperor and Napoleon truly meant. The last thing to consider is
that why would he want to have two of this Legion of Honor if he already had one? That doesn't
make sense, and it never makes him more honorable by having two.