English Literature

Roger Malvins Burial is one of the short stories collections of Nataniel Hawthorne which primarily concerns two colonial survivors returning home after a battle. The story begins after Lovewells Fight, series of colonial conflicts in North America. Survivors of the battle Roger Malvin, an elderly soldier, and Reuben Bourne, a young one, try to get a human settlement through the woods. Though both are wounded and weak, they still fight for their survival. The older man however, knowing that he will soon die due to the seriousness of his wounds, asks Reuben, whom he treats as younger brother, to leave.  A dying man faces death fearlessly. Malvin shows heroism in the face of death which epitomizes the so-called all-American hero-- a kind of American attitude people usually witness in films with war setting. Reuben however insists that he will bring the old man with him but Malvin convinces him that his life, no matter what they do, will soon come to end. The young man, convinced by Malvin, awkwardly leaves. Though Reuben survives and though people find him brave, he can not feel at peace. He is struggling to tell Malvins family and fiance Dorcas that he had left the old man die in the midst of powerlessness. He said that he had buried him in the forest and thus hailed as a hero. But it torments him ultimately that he did not honor and follow Rogers death wish to  return to this wild rock, and lay my bones in the grave, and say a prayer over them  (Hawthorne). In this story, Hawthorne illustrates that the sin  left unredeemed and that the promise left unfulfilled can actually torment a person to the brink of insanity.

The central theme is apparently about guilt, a psychological state which can be destructive if not approach well. Reubens unrelenting state of guilt left him unfulfilled and without peace. The question is does Reuben has a reason at all to feel guilt and remorse Though its true that he left his companion to die but on the other hand the old man was the one who forced and persuaded himself to abandon him. The real reason of his guilt is not directly stated though. Therefore there is a possibility that what haunts Reuben is the fact that he did not fulfill the old mans request even though that request is only to convinced him to leave. The old man was forced to made him promise just to appease his conscience but not really because the old man really means it.  Throughout the short story, it is Reuben mind setting which re enacts his personal drama. His state of mind, who passively accepts guilt, defined his fate.