Glorified Men

What are the various motivations for joining the Union Army for each of the three men named above (Thomas, Major-Sergeant Rawlins, and Trip)? How do those motivations change for each man and transform the black soldiers, In what ways do these different motivations reflect on the different purposes and goals of the Civil War itself?

Since the beginning of America as a nation, the North and the South always had one clear distinction that eventually became the root of numerous disagreements: slavery. The issue of slaves was even the major cause of what had triggered the Civil War to erupt between the two regions. Towards the beginning of the Civil War, the Union army had suffered numerous defeats such as the 1st and 2nd Bull Run, and Antietam. Through the string of defeats, Northerners started to question the idea of freeing the slaves in the South, which raised some to oppose, and some to support. Finally, after much consideration and thought, Abraham Lincoln decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862 that officially set the slaves in the seceded areas of the South free, and opened the Union forces to them for enlistment. The first “colored”, volunteer regiment of the Union forces, as shown in the movie “Glory”, was the 54th Massachusetts. The movie “Glory” demonstrates black soldiers who have enlisted into the Union forces for their own personal reasons, but over time, they came to risk their lives to achieve the true glory of selflessly and fearlessly putting their lives at risk for the greater cause of the Union, which is unity. The three main characters of the movie (1) Thomas, a free and intellectual black man, (2) Major-Sergeant Rawlins, an honorable and wise leader, and (3) Trip, an angry former slave who has been mistreated by the whites, are perfect examples of soldiers who initially had their own individual motivations for fighting in the war, but those incentives changes, and they ended up fighting for the Union cause.
Thomas, born a free...