RIFLEMAN DODD: A NOVEL OF THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN
The story in the book talks about an infantry warrior named Private Matthew Dodd and his journey to re unite with his fellow soldiers. The British army was retreating to the lines of Torres Vedras and Dodd was left behind since he separated from his comrades during the retreat in Portugal behind enemy lines. He knew that he had to do one thing, and that was to kill all the Frenchmen. Private Dodd ran through a lot of problems during his journey trying to find his way back to his men. With some help here and there from the natives, but mostly his own, he raids the French with his rifle to try and prevent them from building a bridge across the Tagus River. Rifleman Dodd is a story of a…show more content… He was determined to get back to his men.
His last challenge that he went through was the Portuguese boy he encountered. Dodd was taking cover from the French in a dark ditch. He then jumped as if a bullet had shot him but it was just beechnut thrown at his shoulder. He looks back and see’s a Portuguese boy, he looked very young around his youth ages. He was called “Idiot”. That was just the name he was given by the French Soldiers. Idiot approached him and grabbed onto Dodd’s hand but Dodd pulled back cause he didn’t know whether to trust him or not but his mind told him to because Idiot was just a young boy. He didn’t look like he was taken care of, pretty much on his own, he had a torn shirt on with some pants that looked like it’s been worn for years and nothing on his feet. Idiot then grabbed onto Dodd’s hand again and led him to the edge of the woods where from there, he pointed to a grey house. Idiot told Dodd that the neighborhood was clear of danger. Dodd took his word and went inside the house. Once they stepped in, all Dodd saw were two dead bodies lying on the ground. They were the idiot’s parents. Dodd got frighten thinking there might be someone around since there’s nothing but dead bodies in the house so he took off and Idiot came running after him. Dodd wasn’t sure about what to do with Idiot, he couldn’t just leave him there so he took the boy along with him and did everything he could to keep them both alive. He even gave the kid the
