Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

The narrator offers a sample of how Homer may have written about General Gandin, had he had the chance. By portraying Gandin in this way, the narrator seeks to humanize the man who condemned so many Italian soldiers to die for no reason, when he did have the ability to save them. This encourages the reader to learn the same lessons that many of the characters are; namely, that all people are worthy of consideration, attention, and empathy, even if they appear to be bad people at first glance.

This assessment suggests that Gandin also buys into the false reality that the Italian forces are still trying to promote. He gets a number of orders to surrender to the Nazis or trust them, and he's willing to believe that those things are a good idea because he's been told they are. In reality, the Germans are doing everything in their power to cheat the Italians and win, which suggests that Gandin doesn't have the ability to think critically about what he sees and put those assessments into meaningful action.

General Gandin fears that the Italians won't be able to beat the Germans in a standoff without Stukas, which the narrator asserts are useless as weapons of war. This again shows how Gandin relies heavily on the sense of reality that he's created for himself with the help of the other Italian officials. He genuinely believes that it's a good thing when he's asked to surrender to the Germans, despite the fact that he has enough weapons to decimate them in hours. Again, this illustrates how Gandin relies on things he wants to be true rather than what's actually true, simply because what he wants to be true makes him feel better and protects him from having to make difficult decisions.

The narrator offers a sample of how Homer may have written about General Gandin, had he had the chance. By portraying Gandin in this way, the narrator seeks to humanize the man who condemned so many Italian soldiers to die for no reason, when he did have the ability to save them. This encourages the reader to learn the same lessons that many of the characters are; namely, that all people are worthy of consideration, attention, and empathy, even if they appear to be bad people at first glance.

This assessment suggests that Gandin also buys into the false reality that the Italian forces are still trying to promote. He gets a number of orders to surrender to the Nazis or trust them, and he's willing to believe that those things are a good idea because he's been told they are. In reality, the Germans are doing everything in their power to cheat the Italians and win, which suggests that Gandin doesn't have the ability to think critically about what he sees and put those assessments into meaningful action.

General Gandin fears that the Italians won't be able to beat the Germans in a standoff without Stukas, which the narrator asserts are useless as weapons of war. This again shows how Gandin relies heavily on the sense of reality that he's created for himself with the help of the other Italian officials. He genuinely believes that it's a good thing when he's asked to surrender to the Germans, despite the fact that he has enough weapons to decimate them in hours. Again, this illustrates how Gandin relies on things he wants to be true rather than what's actually true, simply because what he wants to be true makes him feel better and protects him from having to make difficult decisions.