Private John Bartle, most often known by the nickname "Bart," is the novel's first-person narrator and protagonist. Bart narrates the novel from a retrospective remove, looking back on the events described with the benefit of hindsight. As such, many of the novel's passages take on the introspective, lyrical quality of reverie. Bart, as the primary lens through which we experience the novel, reveals himself to be a thoughtful, honest, and insightful character, as well as a flawed one. When reflecting on his time in the army, Bart says, "It had been good to me, more or less, a place to disappear. I kept my head down and did as I was told. Nobody expected much of me, and I hadn't asked for much in return" (34). This idea of disappearing will return later in the novel, after Bart first returns home to Virginia, but here we see Bart as an average joe, nobody special, and someone most readers can relate to. A few pages later, after Bart meets Murph, we see something of their shared background, each "from a place where a few facts are enough to define you" (37). 

Bart, who is 21 when he goes to war, is a few years Murph's senior; Murph is just 18.