Anna Character Analysis in Private Peaceful

Anna is a teenage girl whom Tommo meets in France. Anna’s father owns the estaminet (a small pub) near the soldiers’ camp, and Anna and Tommo take an instant liking to each other when he visits. She smiles at him when she brings his food, and eventually Tommo plucks up the courage to speak to her. Upon his next visit, however, he learns that Anna has been killed by a stray explosion while gathering eggs. Tommo goes to visit her grave and kisses the earth where she is buried. He finds that as a result partly of Anna’s death, he can no longer believe in heaven. Her death seems too arbitrary and too cruel to suggest the existence of any god. Instead, he feels that all that is left of Anna is buried in the “cold earth” beneath his feet.

Anna Quotes in Private Peaceful

The Private Peaceful quotes below are all either spoken by Anna or refer to Anna. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

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I looked up at the church steeple, a dark arrow pointing at the moon and beyond, and tried with all my heart and mind to believe she was up there somewhere in that vast expanse of infinity, up there in Sunday-school Heaven, in Big Joe’s happy Heaven. I couldn’t bring myself to think it. I knew she was lying in the cold earth at my feet. I knelt down and kissed the earth, then left her there.

Related Characters: Thomas “Tommo” Peaceful (speaker), Big Joe Peaceful , Anna

Related Symbols: Church Towers

Page Number and Citation: 171-172

Explanation and Analysis: