The entire novel is written from two alternating points of view: as described by the title character in telling the tale to his son; and as it happened in fact. The author's apparent intent is to show how a participant's rendering of the occurrences very frequently diverges from the events themselves as they actually happened. For example, apparently in order to deflect his own personal bravery onto a fallen comrade, Morris tells his son how a comrade of his single-handedly broke an ambush his platoon had come under and received a posthumous medal for the act, but the reader learns that in the actual events Morris himself is the one who broke the ambush and received the medal, whereas his comrade had been killed early in the engagement.