The death of Bowe’s pigeon symbolizes the unavoidable feeling of uncertainty during wartime, since this pigeon is supposed to carry news of the platoon’s safety back to the British lines. What’s more, the fact that Bowe’s pigeon dies before the battle even begins foreshadows the lack of information following Jack’s disappearance. The Kipling family grapples with this feeling of uncertainty for two whole years, trying in vain to piece together what happened to Jack. During this time, though, nobody is able to give them concrete information, perhaps because so few people who were with Jack that day ended up surviving the Battle of Loos. In this sense, the dead pigeon (and its inability to bring back news of Jack’s platoon) represents one of the most emotionally challenging aspects of losing a loved one to war—namely, that it’s nearly impossible to know for sure what happened, leaving family members to grapple with loss in a state of fear and uncertainty.
