I Had Seen Castles

By: Cynthia Rylant

I really enjoyed this story by Cynthia Rylant. This is vastly different from another "war" story, Bull Run. I've blogged about Bull Run and what I really enjoyed about that story is the feeling of how "close" I was to the war. I felt like I was fully involved and knew what was happening from all aspects via the perspectives of all the different characters.

I Had Seen Castles is somewhat of an emotional story and shows the emotional toll a war can have on a soldier and his family. I never felt like I was on the front lines as much as I felt I was in Bull Run. Though there were some graphic images of war, I felt I kind of went back and forth from the family aspect to these gritty images.

In this story, readers can observe how a war changes people. John Dante is definitely changed by the end of the story because of his experiences as a young soldier. On page 78, Dante experiences "The shoes with feet and legs up to the knees still standing, and nothing more. The rest of the boy is gone. Or the chest cavity blown wide open so that the heart can be seen, still beating, and the boy to whom the heart belongs reaches out and asks to be helped to die." How can a person not be changed by seeing something like this and not wonder why we're fighting in the first place?

Bull Run was interesting in that I felt almost whole being able to view the war from all sides and views. I don't necessarily feel that way from I Had Seen Castles, though I felt closer to John Dante because the story was told from his point-of-view. I was hooked to this story from the moment I picked it up and I think Rylant captured what life was like for one family during WW2.