Success can be seen so differently based on perspective. Can it be fair to give a mission a percent of success? When multiple people come together with a shared goal the exact parameters may differ from person to person. Within Stephen Crane's, The Open Boat, each man may have only had the goal of themselves getting to shore alive, which would make Billie the only failure. That's a 75% success rate. If the general goal of the men in Mark Twain's, “The Private History of a Campaign that Failed” was to participate in the war without getting killed, then once again, all but one man was successful (96). “The Other Two,” by Edith Wharton, presents a different challenge with which to succeed or fail. Each of the three men have different goals, but
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If the pressure of society in 1861 would encourage the men to participate in the war was not enough, the call of the Governor would have certainly pushed them to join the war (95). At that time, the south found state rights particularly important, especially the rights granted by the second amendment to a disciplined militia. Therefore, militias often seemed to be more appealing than a state or federal army to many people. That said, there were larger militias these 15 men could have joined, but instead they chose to create their own militia. This speaks to their true state of mind behind their war efforts, these men were caught up in the times, wanting to show their bravery and their dedication to the cause, but they did not want to give their life for the cause. D'Un Lap, for instance, is most evidently obsessed with image and pride as he changes his name to give it a sense of nobility, which the narrator calls the bravest thing that an be imagined (95). From the start of their adventures it was clear that war was not their goal. They considered it fun at first, and then strategically avoided fighting (96-97). Unlike in The Open Boat, the men did not follow orders promptly or without question(96, 98, 99, 102). Despite their efforts in retreats, their campaign failed to fully avoid danger, and once that happened, their game had become to real to them. These men came together with the same surface goal, but their subconscious goal was what drove their actions. They failed to gain prestige through battle and they failed to fully avoid conflict, but their campaign could have gone much worse had they gotten into a real
If the pressure of society in 1861 would encourage the men to participate in the war was not enough, the call of the Governor would have certainly pushed them to join the war (95). At that time, the south found state rights particularly important, especially the rights granted by the second amendment to a disciplined militia. Therefore, militias often seemed to be more appealing than a state or federal army to many people. That said, there were larger militias these 15 men could have joined, but instead they chose to create their own militia. This speaks to their true state of mind behind their war efforts, these men were caught up in the times, wanting to show their bravery and their dedication to the cause, but they did not want to give their life for the cause. D'Un Lap, for instance, is most evidently obsessed with image and pride as he changes his name to give it a sense of nobility, which the narrator calls the bravest thing that an be imagined (95). From the start of their adventures it was clear that war was not their goal. They considered it fun at first, and then strategically avoided fighting (96-97). Unlike in The Open Boat, the men did not follow orders promptly or without question(96, 98, 99, 102). Despite their efforts in retreats, their campaign failed to fully avoid danger, and once that happened, their game had become to real to them. These men came together with the same surface goal, but their subconscious goal was what drove their actions. They failed to gain prestige through battle and they failed to fully avoid conflict, but their campaign could have gone much worse had they gotten into a real