The way he achieves this, is by placing himself in situations involving death or loss. During his battalion's shipment to England, Robert is required to kill a horse in the lower levels of the ship - since he is the only officer not affected by sea sickness. When he places his gun on the horse's head, he looks straight into its eyes and all he sees is fear. The horse's sense of fear serves as a mirror image of Robert's emotions. When Robert pulls the trigger, the horse does not die instantly; Robert pulls the trigger multiple times. The horse's resistance to dying connects to Robert's guilt. Robert's attempts to clear his guilt slowly progress, but just like the horse, it strongly resists. After Robert stops firing, all that can be heard is the ringing and echoing of the gunshots around the ship deck. This promotes the idea that no matter how he attempts to overcome his guilt, he will always be reminded of it; Just like an echo replays the original sound forever, his guilt will be echoed in his head forever.
Despite his failure to truly atone for his guilt, he carries forward through the war hoping that another situation will present itself where he is be able to relieve his guilt. Later in the war, Robert is ordered to command a group of men to lay mortars inside craters on the front lines. During this mission, Robert and his men are bombarded with German poison gas. After the gas clears, a German sniper walks up to the rim of the crater. Robert is able to pull his pistol out on the sniper, letting the rest of the men escape. As Robert is about to climb out of the crater, the sniper reaches down for binoculars (which Robert mistakes for a rifle) and Robert shoots the German. The echo of the gunshot rings around the crater, similarly to when the echo of the gunshot rang in the ship. The repetition of the echoing gunshots serves to demonstrate how useless Roberts's attempts are; just like the echo of a gunshot, Robert's guilt will always remain with him.