The Killer Angels

by

Michael Shaara

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Character Analysis

The primary Union protagonist in the story, 34-year-old Chamberlain is Colonel of the Twentieth Maine regiment. He is not a career soldier; he took a leave of absence from his position as professor of rhetoric at Bowdoin College in order to enlist. He loves his younger brother, Tom, but he takes care to quash any appearance of over-familiarity or favoritism between the two of them. He is described as having “a grave, boyish dignity” as well as the “naïve look of the happy professor.” He relies on the assistance and advice of Private Kilrain, whom he loves as a paternal figure. In battle, he functions best on instinct, but he is a naturally contemplative man, his mind always working. An idealist, he holds a visceral belief in human equality—a conviction for which he is willing to kill. Yet, when he meets an escaped black slave in the fields of Pennsylvania, he is appalled to notice his discomfort at touching the man, forcing him to consider the relationship between his ideals and the realities he meets in the world. During the Battle of Little Round Top, Chamberlain discovers his capacity for leadership under pressure, coming up with the idea for a downhill bayonet charge after the regiment runs out of ammunition, and garnering admiration from his superiors for his ingenuity and courage. After the battle, Chamberlain feels pity and even a sense of brotherhood with the fallen Confederates; he cannot hate them, however incompatible their beliefs are with his own.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Quotes in The Killer Angels

The The Killer Angels quotes below are all either spoken by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain or refer to Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. 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:
Honor Theme Icon
).
Monday, June 29, 1863: Chapter 2 Quotes

The faith itself was simple: he believed in the dignity of man. His ancestors were Huguenots, refugees of a chained and bloody Europe. He had learned their stories in the cradle. He had grown up believing in America and the individual and it was a stronger faith than his faith in God.

Related Characters: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:
Wednesday, July 1, 1863: Chapter 4 Quotes

Once Chamberlain had a speech memorized from Shakespeare and gave it proudly, the old man listening but not looking, and Chamberlain remembered it still: “What a piece of work is man … in action how like an angel!” And the old man, grinning, had scratched his head and then said stiffly, “Well, boy, if he’s an angel, he’s sure a murderin’ angel.” And Chamberlain had gone on to school to make an oration on the subject: Man, the Killer Angel.

Related Characters: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
Related Symbols: Angels
Page Number: 114
Explanation and Analysis:
Thursday, July 2, 1863: Chapter 2 Quotes

He felt a slow deep flow of sympathy. To be alien and alone, among white lords and glittering machines, uprooted by brute force and threat of death from the familiar earth of what he did not even know was Africa, to be shipped in black stinking darkness across an ocean he had not dreamed existed, forced then to work on alien soil, strange beyond belief, by men with guns whose words he could not even comprehend. What could the black man know of what was happening? Chamberlain tried to imagine it. He had seen ignorance, but this was more than that. What could this man know of borders and states’ rights and the Constitution and Dred Scott? What did he know of the war? And yet he was truly what it was all about. It simplified to that. Seen in the flesh, the cause of the war was brutally clear.

Related Characters: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, The Escaped Slave
Page Number: 163
Explanation and Analysis:

What I’m fighting for is the right to prove I’m a better man than many. Where have you seen this divine spark in operation, Colonel? Where have you noted this magnificent equality? … There’s many a man worse than me, and some better, but I don’t think race or country matters a damn. What matters is justice.

Related Characters: Buster Kilrain (speaker), Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
Page Number: 170
Explanation and Analysis:
Friday, July 3, 1863: Chapter 6 Quotes

Tom said, “When you ask them prisoners, they never talk about slavery. But, Lawrence, how do you explain that? What else is the war about?”

Chamberlain shook his head.

“If it weren’t for the slaves, there’d never have been no war, now would there?”

“No,” Chamberlain said.

“Well then, I don’t care how much political fast-talking you hear, that’s what it’s all about and that’s what them fellers died for, and I tell you, Lawrence, I don’t understand it at all.”

Related Characters: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (speaker), Tom Chamberlain (speaker)
Page Number: 329
Explanation and Analysis:
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Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Quotes in The Killer Angels

The The Killer Angels quotes below are all either spoken by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain or refer to Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. 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:
Honor Theme Icon
).
Monday, June 29, 1863: Chapter 2 Quotes

The faith itself was simple: he believed in the dignity of man. His ancestors were Huguenots, refugees of a chained and bloody Europe. He had learned their stories in the cradle. He had grown up believing in America and the individual and it was a stronger faith than his faith in God.

Related Characters: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:
Wednesday, July 1, 1863: Chapter 4 Quotes

Once Chamberlain had a speech memorized from Shakespeare and gave it proudly, the old man listening but not looking, and Chamberlain remembered it still: “What a piece of work is man … in action how like an angel!” And the old man, grinning, had scratched his head and then said stiffly, “Well, boy, if he’s an angel, he’s sure a murderin’ angel.” And Chamberlain had gone on to school to make an oration on the subject: Man, the Killer Angel.

Related Characters: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
Related Symbols: Angels
Page Number: 114
Explanation and Analysis:
Thursday, July 2, 1863: Chapter 2 Quotes

He felt a slow deep flow of sympathy. To be alien and alone, among white lords and glittering machines, uprooted by brute force and threat of death from the familiar earth of what he did not even know was Africa, to be shipped in black stinking darkness across an ocean he had not dreamed existed, forced then to work on alien soil, strange beyond belief, by men with guns whose words he could not even comprehend. What could the black man know of what was happening? Chamberlain tried to imagine it. He had seen ignorance, but this was more than that. What could this man know of borders and states’ rights and the Constitution and Dred Scott? What did he know of the war? And yet he was truly what it was all about. It simplified to that. Seen in the flesh, the cause of the war was brutally clear.

Related Characters: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, The Escaped Slave
Page Number: 163
Explanation and Analysis:

What I’m fighting for is the right to prove I’m a better man than many. Where have you seen this divine spark in operation, Colonel? Where have you noted this magnificent equality? … There’s many a man worse than me, and some better, but I don’t think race or country matters a damn. What matters is justice.

Related Characters: Buster Kilrain (speaker), Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
Page Number: 170
Explanation and Analysis:
Friday, July 3, 1863: Chapter 6 Quotes

Tom said, “When you ask them prisoners, they never talk about slavery. But, Lawrence, how do you explain that? What else is the war about?”

Chamberlain shook his head.

“If it weren’t for the slaves, there’d never have been no war, now would there?”

“No,” Chamberlain said.

“Well then, I don’t care how much political fast-talking you hear, that’s what it’s all about and that’s what them fellers died for, and I tell you, Lawrence, I don’t understand it at all.”

Related Characters: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (speaker), Tom Chamberlain (speaker)
Page Number: 329
Explanation and Analysis: