Modernist Movement in Ford's Good Soldier and Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway

Learning that Hugh has not been home yet, Deborah rushes off to the mill with food for him, her fatigue vanished in the face of her desire to care for Hugh. It soon becomes even more apparent to infer from Deborah’s “painful eagerness” to please him that she is in love with Hugh (8). In these opening pages we see not only Deborah’s affection for Hugh, but that this affection is merited: for we see also Hugh’s gentle nature as he does what he can to protect Janey and to care for Deborah by sending her to sleep on the warm iron ash until he can take her home at the end of his shift (8). Yet, as Deborah watches Hugh work, she acknowledges that “in spite of all his kindness, . . . there was that in her face and form which made him loathe the sight of her. . . . [D]own under all the vileness and coarseness of his life, there was a groping passion for whatever was beautiful and pure” (9). The initial use of Deborah as a focal character, then, allows the revelation of Hugh as a kind human being who is loved by those to whom he shows kindness; it also establishes his artistic love of beauty and thus strengthens the effect of his kindness to the hunchbacked Deborah.

“Which in the field developed into the finest thing that arose out of the war - comradeship,” (Remarque 27). Throughout the war, soldiers depend on each other to be able to live another day. Through small acts of kindness, sorrow from loss, and never leaving one behind emerges the theme of comradeship, which is clearly represented in the novel, All Quiet On The Western Front.”

Tim O’Brien’s book “The Things They Carried” epitomizes the degradation of morals that war produces. This interpretation is personified in the characters who gradually blur the line dividing right and wrong as the motives for war itself become unclear. The morality of soldiers and the purpose of war are tied also to the truth the soldiers must tell themselves in order to participate in the gruesome and random killing which is falsely justified by the U.S government. The lack of purpose in the Vietnam War permanently altered the soldier’s perspective of how to react to situations and in most cases they turned to violence to express their frustration.

Fitting with the common theme between the two novels of the judgment of others, each heroine falls victim to a horrible misjudgment of the character of another. After discovering that the engagement between her brother and her friend Isabella has been broken, Catherine finds she has grossly misjudged her friend’s character, and thinks, “She was ashamed of Isabella, ashamed of ever having loved her” (Northanger 150). Elizabeth, on the other hand, finds her attachment the Wickham wholly inappropriate after receiving her letter from Mr. Darcy. After digesting the shocking contents of the letter, Elizabeth “grew absolutely ashamed of herself.—Of neither Darcy nor Wickham could she think, without feeling that she had been blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd” (Pride 156). And indeed, as suggested by Elizabeth’s mention of Darcy, this misjudgment goes on to affect each girl’s attachment to her future husband.

Even though the soldiers join the war as naive youths, the war rapidly changes them and they develop into young men. Surrounded by death, the boys are bound to foresee the fragility of their own lives and are stripped of the carelessness and brazenness of youth. The dreadful horrors around the boys bound them to consider a world that does not accommodate to their childish and simplistic view. They want to only see a separation between what is right and what is wrong, they instead find moral doubt. Where they had wanted to see order and meaning, they only found senselessness and disorder. Where they wanted to find heroism, they only found the selfish instinct of self-preservation. These realizations destroyed the innocence of the boys, maturing and thrusting them into their manhood.

December 1943: Charlie Brown and his crew struggled back to England aboard their badly damaged B-17. Franz Stigler finds the struggling aircraft and defying orders, does not strike the plane down. This event was “the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II.” (BACK COVER). In A Higher Call, Adam Makos tells the story of these men from both sides by telling the before, during, and after of the incredible encounter through the eyes of both men. As this encounter came to light decades later, a question was raised by many: can those of the side of the enemy have good within them? Franz's and Charlie's encounter embodies a larger question found in war and conflict. Through telling the story of the encounter between Franz and Charlie, Makos answers (positively) the question, can good men be found on both sides of a war? The events illustrated in the book brings the reader to conclude good men and good acts can be found on both sides of the war.

Through the soldiers’ experiences, the narrator shows only the dark side of human nature. Discuss.

In the aftermath of a comparatively minor misfortune, all parties concerned seem to be eager to direct the blame to someone or something else. It seems so easy to pin down one specific mistake that caused everything else to go wrong in an everyday situation. However, war is a vastly different story. War is ambiguous, an enormous and intangible event, and it cannot simply be blamed for the resulting deaths for which it is indirectly responsible. Tim O’Brien’s story, “In the Field,” illustrates whom the soldiers turn to with the massive burden of responsibility for a tragedy. The horrible circumstances of war transform all involved and tinge them with an absurd feeling of

Society’s perception on war is often clouded by popular media. Action packed movies with fictional war heroes, and video games set in past wars, are examples of such hyperbole. It is outlets like these that raise society’s expectations of soldiers into unrealistic ideas. While it may seem as black and white as killing the bad guy, majority of the population does not consider the long term effects war may have on soldiers. Most movies portray soldiers as emotionless killing machines and leave out the lifelong psychological effects war can have on a person. Tim O’Brien’s book The Things They Carried is a look into the mind of a soldier in the middle of war. In the book, we learn of First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, a soldier who is carrying the guilt

The glorified act of war is often staged in historical literature by idolizing the soldiers who partake in the event. Soldiers are made to seem intrepid, ruthless and muscular, each with a ceaseless desire to fight valiantly for their countries. Timothy Findley and Kurt Vonnegut discard this typical hero archetype in their anti-war novels by portraying the soldiers who fight in the war as the men they are, not as the templates of heroes they are expected to fit, in furtherance of strengthening their anti-war stances. Findley and Vonnegut illustrate their protagonists as a tragic hero and an anti-hero, respectively, in order to juxtapose the atrocities of war with the flawed humanness of man and to challenge the stereotypical image of a

The Great War is much like the great irony. Nationalistic ideals has consumed the humanity of individuals and blinded them from the truth. Governments used propagandas, and more to persuade young and naïve soldiers to enlist in the war. In All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque, illustrates the life of a soldier, Paul. He and his fellow comrades have to face the horrors of the war. For the soldiers that survive, they are not only physically destroyed but mentally as well. War World One is not justifiable because of the damages, and losses of lives it has created. The war ended approximately 90 years ago. Yet, still in today’s society, people are still going to war. The Great War has killed numerous lives, and put many at stake.

Kindness is no doubt a virtue, yet in a state of conflict, it may be viewed as a hinderance as it is only possible for violence to exist when the idea of kindness is corrupted or eradicated. In Timothy Findley’s novel The Wars, the character of Robert Ross undergoes the transformation and corruption that embodies the effect of war on the human spirit. Initially, the idea of violence and conflict is viewed as a concept that is unthinkably cruel, yet as Ross personally experiences the cruelties and insane nature of war, violence becomes an act that is crucial to one’s survival but detrimental to one’s spirit. The only way Ross is able to preserve his humanity and his sense of justice, is through an enduring perception of hope and kindness in

More often than not, war novels romanticize the soldier on the battle field as a heroic figure that would gladly die for his county’s honor. Erich Maria Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front”, paints a vividly different picture than one of a patriotic soldier willing to be at war. Remarque’s work masterfully shows that the soldier’s expectations of war could not be any further from society’s concept of warfare. “All Quiet on the Western Front” follows a young and innocent soldier, Paul Baumer, through the living Hell that is World War I. Through Paul’s character, Remarque’s antiwar novel demonstrates that war is nothing but, irrational, patriotic fueled violence that turns humans into insensible soldiers, while simultaneously indicating that their lives have no meaning.

In Otranto, Walpole challenges his societies views of modernity and transgresses social laws by introducing the theme of incest into his novel with Manfred preying of his deceased son’s betrothed, Isabella. This brings into play three defining features which became prevalent within gothic novels of the late eighteenth century: women in distress; women being threatened by powerful males; and the major theme of fear and in this example, specifically female fear. Isabella, a young, virginal woman becomes “half dead with fright” when faced with potential rape and becoming a spoiled woman at the hands of the powerful and threatening Manfred. Such suggestions, by Walpole’s age were seen as scandalous and caused moral outrage, a thread that was carried through the gothic genre. This new genre may have provided for many, an escape from the rigid world of enlightenment. It brought to them a world of imagination and allowed them to immerse themselves in a world which had been morally forbidden and they could do it from the privacy of their own homes, allowing their indulgence, and perhaps, immoral thoughts to go unnoticed, providing a way for the darkness and immoral thoughts to come alive outside of the novel. At the end of the novel however, society’s moral ideals surface as Manfred retires to a convent after the realisation of his sins and order is restored. In this way, although Walpole is exposing his readers to these ideas, he would

]Basil also has the power of a Southern gentleman on his side. His physical description includes his, “… superior forehead…” (James 4) in his line-up of the “Southern charm” qualities. Even though this book was published in 1886, the modern reader still must remember that the Civil War relevance is included in this novel, as is the imagery of slavery. Basil’s image was not for want of relevant details of slavery, but the troubling resonance constitutes a strong critique of a system within which humans could be “whipped, shackled, bought and sold”. Olive Chancellor thinks Basil is someone who “’no doubt, desired to treat women with the lash and manacles, as he and his people had formerly treated the whole wretched colored race’ (164)” (Hochman 274-275). Olive and Verena are not the only women that Basil influences under his power. Mrs. Luna also sees it, and believes it. Mrs. Luna may not be the most influenced by his power, but, “She appealed to his Southern chivalry, and not in vain; practically at least, he admitted the rights of women,” (James 90). He may admit them, but does not believe them. He is afraid it threatens his power. Outside of Boston, across the river to Connecticut, there is another man who has a force of power to his name, even though he is not in Connecticut.