Which sentences in this excerpt from john steinbeck's "symptoms" address the theme of soldiers being reluctant to talk about their experiences in war? if they had been reticent men it would have been different, but some of them were talkers and some were even boasters. they would discuss their experiences right up to the time of battle and then suddenly they wouldn't talk anymore. this was considered heroic in them. it was thought that they had seen or done was so horrible that they didn't want to bring it back to haunt them or their listeners. but many of these men had no such consideration in any other field. only recently have i found what seems to be a reasonable explanation, and the answer is simple. they did not and do not remember--and the worse the battle was, the less they remember.

The sentences which express the reluctance of the soldiers to talk about their experience in war are as follows:
1. If they had been reticent men it would have been different, but some of them were talkers and some were even boasters. 
2. They would discuss their experiences right up to the time of battle and then suddenly they wouldn't talk anymore.
3. It was thought that what they had seen or done was so horrible that they didn't want to bring it back to haunt them or their listeners. But many of these men had no such consideration in any other field. 
The three sentence given above show that the men of war who are been discussed in the passage are not interested in sharing their experience in the war field, they always become mute when it comes to discussing the happenings of the war.

Which statement reflects the importance of alliterative verseb. it makes the poem easy to memorize.

question:

#1: what is the simile that occurs in lines 43-47 (below)? give exact words for just the simile. #2: explain what frost means by this comparison.

it's when i'm weary of considerations, and life is too much like a pathless wood where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs broken across it, and one eye is weeping from a twig's having lashed across it open

answer to question #1: the simile that occurs in the text given (lines 43-47) is: ''life is too much like a pathless ''

explanation: a simile is a comparison of one thing with another thing and it is used to make a vivid description. it uses like or as. in the text, we can understand that the person is feeling weary of considerations and because of this, the person compares ''life'' to ''a pathless wood''.

answer to question #2: in this text we can understand that the word frost could mean anger, annoyance and bitterness, due to the fact that the person is stating that he/she is feeling weary of considerations and compares life to a pathless wood.

explanation: the word frost means coldness and something covered by ice crystals but looking at the comparison made in this text, we can understand that the word frost could mean anger, annoyance and bitterness, due to the fact that the person is stating that he/she is feeling weary of considerations therefore he/she compares life to a pathless wood.