In Two Soldiers and Shall Not Perish, author William Faulkner focuses on small-town, rural South and its relationship to a large-scale United States at war during World War II. In Two Soldiers twenty-year-old Pete Grier becomes inspired to leave his farm and family and join the army, with hopes to fight for his country against the Japanese. Pete's younger brother, the eight-year-old narrator of the story, is powered by a similar inspiration coupled with strong brotherly love. The boy pursues his brother to Memphis for a day on foot and by bus, hoping to aid the war effort and stay with his brother. At the start of Shall Not Perish, Pete's family receives notice that Pete has died on a ship bombed in the Pacific. This story, narrated by the same boy, traces the effect that the loss of a son to war has on the families of the South. In Shall Not Perish, Faulkner meditates on the mysterious 'inspiration' that drives men to fight for their country. Together, these two stories reveal the close connection between the simple elements of rural life, such as farm labor and familial love, and the patriotism for a vast America that appreciation of these simplicities helps to foster. The narrator that Faulkner creates begins to understand the importance of this connection, and begins to develop such patriotism within himself.

As Two Soldiers opens, the eight-year-old narrator first hears about the bombing of Pearl Harbor through the radio of a neighbor and the explanations of his brother Pete. Although Pete is twelve years older, the two are very close; as he lies by his brother's side at night, the young boy senses thoughts brooding in Pete's mind. We are told "he would lay there, a heap stiller than if he was asleep, and it would be something, I could feel it coming out of him, like he was mad at me only I knowed he wasn't thinking about me." After many nights lying awake, deep in thought, Pete tells his brother that he has decided to go to war, explaining "I got to go…. I jest ain't going to put up with no folks treating the Unity States that way." The boy recognizes Pete's intentions as noble, agrees with a loving naïveté, and quickly sets his mind on war with a similar determinism. When told he can't fight, he offers to carry wood and water for the soldiers-to do whatever he can. This selflessness and fondness for his brother is heartwarming.

As Pete recognizes, his brother takes the news much more easily than do his parents. According to the boy's narration, Pete has the most difficulty explaining his intentions to his father. Pap does not "see a bit of use" in his son Pete's wanting to got to war for the country, although he himself fought in WWI. According to Father, "I was drafted and sent clean to Texas and was held there nigh eight months until they finally quit fighting. It seems to me that, along with your Uncle Marsh who received an actual wound on the battlefields of France, is enough for me and mine to protect the country, at least in my lifetime. Besides, what'll I do for help on the farm with you gone? It seems to me I'll get mighty fat behind."

Mr. Grier farms sixty of the family's seventy acres of land, having given ten to Pete. Early in the story we are told that Pete successfully seeds and works his part of the land on schedule, in great contrast to his father. As the narrator explains during the first few lines, "We was still sowing the vetch then that ought to been all finished by the fifteenth of November, because pap was behind, just like he had been ever since me and Pete knowed him." Faulkner constantly emphasizes this point, mentioning four times during the story that father was behind.

Though Pap doesn't put up much of a fight against his son, Faulkner has set up a clear contrast between these two men. Pete has stayed up late at night and has finally reached some critical mass where he has "got to go" to war. Pap is a man who only fought because of the draft, and who retains some degree of bitterness for the mere eight months he spent in nearby Texas. Faulkner wants us to see that this same difference between them allows Pete to keep up with his farming while Father falls behind. Desire to fight for America is here bound not only to work ethic but also to land.

Pete's mother begs him not to go, but once she recalls her own brother's determination to fight in WWI, and her mother's choice to accept that determination, she stops resisting. The next day she aids him in his packing, saying, "You got to go, and so I want you to go. But I don't understand it, and I wont never, so don't expect me to." Maw's claim not to understand why her son wants to fight for America seems to be exaggerated, partly by modesty and partly by fear that she will lose him to war. Though she may not fully understand the reasoning behind her son's sudden inspiration, it becomes evident through examination of both stories that she does not deny its importance. In any case, within the confines of Two Soldiers, Maw clearly comes closer than her husband to understanding Pete's point of view, but we cannot get a good sense of Mother's work ethic until Shall not Perish.