Honor
Throughout The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara’s historical novel set during the Civil War’s Battle of Gettysburg, the notion of honor manifests on personal and cultural levels—especially in the Confederate Army. In Southern culture, so important is maintaining one’s honor that an accusation of cowardice compels General Dick Garnett to seek redemption through certain death. Similarly, no matter how wise the arguments of Confederate second-in-command James Longstreet for defensive warfare, General Robert E. Lee is…
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Old World vs. New World
Shaara portrays the battle of Gettysburg as a pivotal juncture not only for the Civil War, but for history more broadly. This is done in two major ways throughout the story: first, through characters’ competing visions for what American culture is or should become, and second, through Lee’s and Longstreet’s competing visions for how to conduct the war. Lee’s vision is connected to an older, “gentlemanly,” honor-driven culture, while Longstreet’s is forward-looking and…
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Idealism vs. Disillusionment
While many characters in the book are fired by supposedly unshakeable beliefs, Shaara uses two main figures to explore the ways in which the Civil War tested the ideals of belligerents on both sides. Despite Chamberlain’s passionate commitment to “freedom” in the abstract, he has never met a slave. And in the process of his own disillusionment, Longstreet realizes that the Confederates’ idolizing of Lee has hindered their ability to fight the war effectively…
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Slavery and Freedom
Throughout the book, Shaara portrays a range of motivations for the Civil War, and neither side is monolithic in outlook. Many characters offer their opinions as to “what the war is really about”—such as the desire for freedom from a “foreign” government, defense of “states’ rights,” and the desire to crush the Southern aristocracy—yet the central conflict inevitably turns around the question of slavery and freedom. While not every character primarily fights for or against…
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