# Notes: Keefe stories 8-15 (chunks 407-678, 272 records)

Written by reading every scene by hand. No inference was used and no grouping was done. These are
recurring situations I noticed, offered as input for the grouping pass. Chunk ids are examples, not
complete lists.

## Recurring situations

1. **A joker feeds the credulous newcomer a tall tale, and he swallows it.** This is the spine of
   almost every story. Examples: the dangerous bunkmates (453-457, 463-465), the idea that
   corporals are sent first to die (494, 497, 503-504, 556-558), the "censor ship" (548), German
   taught as French (551, 553-554), the forged letter from the top (621-623), the spy hunt
   (656-658, 663-664).
2. **The pranked man claims afterwards that he saw through it all along.** Examples: 471, 563, 568,
   669, 673. This is the natural closing beat of situation 1.
3. **Fear of danger dressed up as duty, loyalty or sacrifice.** Examples: he skips his leave "for
   his promotion chances" (464, 467); he wants to be demoted "out of loyalty to his men" (502,
   505); he takes a safe post as a "sacrifice" (620, 624, 627, 658, 666); he hides his skill to
   avoid a deadly job (667); he declines to fight a comrade (675).
4. **Trying to get excused from a duty everyone must face.** Examples: exemption claims, the
   medical, the affidavit and the appeal (420-421, 429, 431-437); asking to skip exercises (452);
   reporting sick (467, 642).
5. **Promotion, and what comes with it.** A small step up is taken as recognition from the very top
   (485-486, 476). Lording it over former equals, then losing the rank (487, 489, 495, 530;
   demoted at 567). Others promoted over him (533). Imagined leaps to the staff, a commission or
   intelligence work (474, 507, 522, 639, 658, 665).
6. **The braggart with no useful skill, who gets deflated.** Examples: the career interview
   (449-450), grenades (487-488), football (512, 515-516), the rifle range (517-518), the language
   lessons he quits (493), a public speech (600-602), the essay (616-618, 635-638).
7. **Claiming to be above something, then doing it anyway.** Examples: the poems for the reporter
   (582-585), the article for the paper (613-615), the football team (512 then 515), the language
   class (473 then 493).
8. **A married man mistakes a woman's politeness, or a stranger's letters, for infatuation.** He
   strings her along "out of kindness" and ends up humiliated. The sock-letter woman runs through
   509-539; the canteen volunteer through 587-605; the café girl through 630, 633, 640 and 642.
9. **The neglected husband and the independent wife.** She spends his money, then starts a
   business that outearns him and wrecks his exemption claim (411-417, 422, 427, 433-437). She
   rarely writes (522, 580, 599, 640); she is out when he comes home (524-527); she snubs a
   humbler family (477-478).
10. **Leaving home, and the farewell to the family.** Examples: 440, 442, 498, 500, 540, 545. There
    are false last letters, written in the belief that he is about to die: 500, 559-563.
11. **Getting called before those above you over a lapse.** Examples: returning late from leave
    (505-506), a remark that sounded disloyal and an insult to an ally (564-567), a baseless
    accusation (670-672). A fair-minded superior often lets him off (506, 566).
12. **Blaming others for your own failure.** Examples: reporters, fielders, the umpire and
    teammates (423-426); the food and the dark at the range (517-518); luck (617, 636); a
    "trip" instead of a beating (674-676).
13. **Crude pranks he plays on others, and the payback.** He plays the April Fool trick on a
    lovesick comrade (644-646). He vows to get even with the jokers (472, 606, 678). He reads and
    spreads a colleague's private letter (655, 674).
14. **Squalid, regimented conditions for someone used to comfort.** Examples: 446, 572-574, 607-609.
    This one is weaker as a predicament but it recurs.

## Notes for the grouping pass

- **Stories 8-9 have a lot of domestic material**, such as the wife's business and the exemption.
  Stories 10-15 are mostly about the institution: rank, jokers and superiors.
- **Most scenes are only half about one situation.** Many chunks join the end of one letter to the
  start of the next. The summary covers both halves, and the predicament follows the half that
  carries more weight.
- **Keefe's claims are unreliable.** The summaries say what really happens: the letter from the top
  is a hoax (622), the "fall" was a beating (674), and the skipped leave was fear (464-467).