Robert Ross Symbolism in The Wars Book

Timothy Findley's The Wars describes the history of Robert Ross, a Second Lieutenant in the Canadian Army, during World War 1. The story of Robert Ross is a candid recollection of a young man coming of age in the midst of horror and confusion associated with the "war to end all wars". Presented in the form of an archivist trying to piece together the past from pictures and letters, the narrative account is full of rich imagery and deep meaning. The abundant animal imagery in the novel is used to parallel and reveal the character of Robert Ross, foreshadow the situations he finds himself in, and symbolize hope amidst war.

Throughout the story, the narrator perceives Robert as an inadequate person, pathetic, needing help to find his way around and simply not being able to provide for himself. “But he didn’t use a cane and he didn’t

     Through despair, Robert forces himself to keep with his ideals, which shows just how strong his resolve is. When Robert was in despair, he took his mind off his problems by keeping himself busy. After losing Rowena, Robert decides to join the army to replace taking care of Rowena, by taking care of the human condition. Later when Robert loses Harris, he busies himself by performing the last rites over his good friend. “This is not a military funeral. This is just a burial at sea. May we all remove our caps? (p107)” Later when Robert is attacked in the bath house, he finds that he is still trying to protect Rowena. He does this by lighting her pictures on fire to remove her from this cruel world. “Robert sat on the mutilated mattress and opened his kit bag. Everything was there – including the picture of Rowena. Robert burned it in the middle of the floor. This was not an act of anger – but an act of charity. (p172)” These show that even through despair, Robert manages to stick to his ideals.

One of the horses breaks its leg and Robert is ordered to kill it. He shoots it once, but the horse is still alive and its mane is described as "a tangle of rattlesnakes" (68). The snakes symbolize the feelings of immorality that are welling up inside of Robert. He knows that killing an animal is against his moral values, but his role in the army is more important to him. He feels that he has "to show his nerve and ability as an officer" (66). Robert finally shoots the horse behind its ear and kills it. This is the first time he intentionally kills a living creature in the story.

The topic of war is hard to imagine from the perspective of one who hasn't experienced it. Literature makes it accessible for the reader to explore the themes of war. Owen and Remarque both dipcik what war was like for one who has never gone through it. Men in both All Quiet on the Western Front and “Dulce Et Decorum” experience betrayal of youth, horrors of war and feelings of camaraderie.

War is a hellish battleground where many lives are taken. In war there is constantly images and events that happen which can change a soldier’s life forever. In the book All Quiet on the Western Front Remarque uses the symbols of boots, butterflies and horses to advance the main theme in the novel, that war takes young men’s innocence away.

When he receives his belongings and sees the photograph of his sister, Robert realizes that he doesn’t her memory to exist in a place that has treated him so harshly and that her innocence does not belong in this world any longer. Robert decides to burn the picture to free Rowena’s memory from the slightest association with the depravation mankind has sunk to in his eyes, and with it he is destroying the last link to his innocence.

Parallels are drawn between the protagonist, Robert Ross, and many of the animals that appear throughout the novel. Robert appears to have a strong kinship with his animal counterparts. After enlisting in the army, Robert takes a run out on the prairie, where he encounters a coyote. He instinctively begins to follow the creature, and it leads him to a valley where it stops to drink at a small pond. As it drinks, "the sound . . . [crosses] the distance between them and . . . [seems] to satisfy his own thirst" (The Wars 28). Before the coyote leaves, it turns and "[looks] directly at him . . . and [barks] . . .The coyote had known he was there the whole time: maybe the whole of the run across the prairie. Now it was telling Robert that the valley was vacant: safe-and Robert could proceed to the water's edge and drink" (28). Later that night, as he sits alone, Robert finds himself "wishing that someone would howl" (28). Robert also seems to have a special bond with birds, which often appear in the novel, frequently at times of crisis for Robert. After unwittingly leading his men through the fog onto a collapsing dike, the air is suddenly "filled with the shock waves of wings . . . [and] the sound of their motion [sends] a shiver down Robert's back" (81). Subsequently, Robert steps into the sinking mud and is nearly sucked down to his death beneath the earth. Later in the novel, Robert again encounters a bird, and it is at the same

In the incredible book, All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, the reader follows Paul Baumer, a young man who enlisted in the war. The reader goes on a journey and watches Paul and his comrades face the sheer brutality of war. In this novel, the author tries to convey the fact that war should not be glorified. Through bombardment, gunfire, and the gruesome images painted by the author, one can really understand what it would have been like to serve on the front lines in the Great War. The sheer brutality of the war can be portrayed through literary devices such as personification, similes, and metaphors.

The Wars, written by Timothy Findley, is a story about World War I, and consists of many shocking images passed over to the reader. Findley accomplishes to pull the reader into the narrative itself, so that the reader manages to feel an impact upon him/her-self about what is read. If it was not for this specific skill, or can also be seen as a specific genre, the novel would not have been as successful as it is now. Also, something that helps the book be so triumphant, there is the fact that Findley never overwhelms the reader with too many gruesome details about the World War I. Instead, he breaks the book down to help the reader calm down from everything that is happening. Throughout the essay, there is going to be some commenting on a

Robert is ferociously raped and handled roughly in the darkness by the unknown males, and he describes that he is “spun around in the dark.” The confusion that he faces causes him to lose “all sense of gravity,” which emphasizes the intensity of this violent act. The severity of the rape scene is once again emphasized when Robert elucidates that his legs are “forced apart so far he thought they were going to be broken” and he is “struck […] in the face.” The rapists do not merely rape Robert; they viciously attack and beat him as well. After the

In an effort to redeem himself from Rowena’s death, Robert’s goal is to save life, any life, even if it is the life of an animal. To Robert, animals symbolize innocence. He views them as innocent bystanders in a world full of violence and madness. He feels a special connection to them, especially to his totems of horses and dogs. So when Robert is forced to put down the ill horses, this is utterly emotionally heart-breaking. Again he is faced with the murder of innocence. This time, he is the one responsible for such a horrid action. This kind of situation can shape anyone’s character

Once Robert is back in the battle, there is another, worse attack on the Canadian lines by the Germans. They are being rained on by shells, and Robert fears for the lives of the horses in a nearby barn that is being hit by the shelling, and which Robert fears will collapse at any moment. Over the course of the war, Robert has grown more and more attached to horses, and it’s in his benevolent nature to care for other animals. When Robert tells Captain Leather that he will go back to the barn to save the horses, Leather refuses, saying that it is not necessary. Robert, thinking back to the last time he wanted to go against Captain Leather’s orders, and what arose when he didn’t, realizes that he must go against his orders and free the horses. As Robert is running back to the barn to free the horses, Leather screams at him to stop what he is doing and to follow his orders, but Robert is determined. When Leather pulls his gun on Robert, Robert stops to shoot him, killing Leather. In this time, the barn has been hit by a shell, and is burning, but Robert still runs inside to try to save the horses moments before the roof of the barn collapses on Robert, burning him

Throughout the book, Robert Ross was dependent on his sister, Rowena, and the animals he felt so connected to. Robert more than anything becomes a person who relies more on animals, than he does people. Robert’s reliance on animals starts because of his sister’s love for her rabbits: “ ‘Can the rabbits stay forever, too?’ ‘Yes, Rowena.’ ”(18) His dependence on animals only strengthens as the book goes on, and when Rowena dies, he turns to the animals for guidance and as a replacement for Rowena. On many different occasions, Robert displays his love for animals and disconnection from the real world: “Robert soon became completely disengaged from the other life on the upper decks. He even went below off duty.” (56) Robert shows his lack of connection with the other soldiers on board, and demonstrates his relationship he developed with the animals in the army. Robert’s connection strengthens with animals so much, that towards the end of the book he is willing to break military rules and attempt to save them: “I’m going to break ranks and save these animals.” (183) The heroes, we are custom to today, would not go against the rules to save a bunch of horses. Even though, most would not see Robert as being heroic, because he broke the rules, it was his intentions behind his actions. As

The story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is an enormously detailed fictional account of a wartime scenario in which jimmy Cross (the story’s main character) grows as a person, and the emotional and physical baggage of wartime are brought to light. The most obvious and prominent feature of O’Brien’s writing is a repetition of detail. O’brien also passively analyzes the effects of wartime on the underdeveloped psyche by giving the reader close up insight into common tribulations of war, but not in a necessarily expositorial sense.. He takes us into the minds of mere kids as they cope with the unbelievable and under-talked-about effects or rationalizing