The Wars - Theme of Loss of Innocence Essay example

The rabbits reminded him of Rowena because she shares the same characteristics as her rabbits such as fragility and innocence. Therefore he risks "a blow on [his] head...to help the helpless [animals]" (Quenneville 1). He even helps a rat, an animal associated with disease and death, escape a muddy grave. His conduct greatly contrasts that of the soldiers who kill and torture cats and vermin. This only further exemplifies his compassion for the lives of even of the smallest of creatures.

His mom didn’t really want Robert at first and Vincent was very, very supportive about whether she wanted to bring Robert home or not. She said no until one night, when Mary and Vincent went home to their other children, Micheal, Gary, Paula, and Catherine and asked what they thought about bringing hime. All of Robert’s soon-to-be siblings said yes. While at first, Vincent and Mary were a little weirded out at first, their love for Robert grew stronger and stronger. Especially his mom’s, her love grew fast and fierce. His parents got over their “weird” feeling, they decided to take Robert out in the real world without getting

     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.

Everyone is born into this world with a sense of innocence, completely oblivious to the cruelties of the world. However, as humans grow up and reach early- adulthood, they begin to realize the realities of this world, all that is real and all that is, in fact, a figment of the imagination. As people learn that it is truly impossible to stay hidden from the harsh realities of adulthood for their entire life, they also learn that it is impossible to shield others from these truths as well. They learn that although they may not be able to protect themselves from life’s misfortunes, they must perceiver, move forward, and not hold anyone back in their tracks. Just as all humans eventually learn to accept and move past life’s various misfortunes,

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.

John Dower's War without Mercy describes the ugly racial issues, on both the Western Allies and Japanese sides of the conflict in the Pacific Theater as well as all of Asia before during and after World War II and the consequences of these issues on both military and reconstruction policy in the Pacific. In the United States as well as Great Britain, Dower dose a good job of proving that, "the Japanese were more hated than the Germans before as well as after Pearl Harbor." (8) On this issue, there was no dispute among contemporary observers including the respected scholars and writers as well as the media. During World War II the Japanese are perceived as a race apart, a species apart referred to as apes, but at

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 A Separate Peace, John Knowles carries the theme of the inevitable loss of innocence throughout the entire novel. Several characters in the novel sustain both positive and negative changes, resulting from the change of the peaceful summer sessions at Devon to the reality of World War II. While some characters embrace their development through their loss of innocence, others are at war with themselves trying to preserve that innocence.

Despite the fact that the German has let the rest of the soldiers escape unharmed, Robert’s innate violence triggers the death of an innocent soldier. Thus, Robert’s actions reveal the inherent savage nature of humankind.

Throughout the book, it is shown that Robert has a special connection with animals and the environment. The many animals he encounters throughout the story are symbols which reflect on him and his actions. After Robert

First, the main character, Robert Ross, was an innocent child at the beginning of the novel. He loved his sister, Rowena, and felt guilty not being able to save her. He then decided to enlist the army because he wanted to protect innocents in order to redeem himself to the death of Rowena. He got beaten up the night before he enlisted the army, “That night, Robert was lying in the bathtub, smoothing his aches and bruises with water…”(23). If he was in the army, he would have to fight people much stronger than Teddy Budge. Robert would not be able to fight them since the fight between him and Teddy was one sided already. However, Robert was only thinking about how he could redeem himself, but not his own capability to be a soldier. This showed how naive Robert was, he didn’t see the danger he was stepping into. Also, when Mrs Ross told

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

Another characteristic the author uses to portray the racial discrimination during this era was Passion. The author uses passion to show that despite the treatment towards Robert he was no less of a human. Passion was as evident throughout our text as our narrator narrates both on her side and Robert’s. From her words “Feeling decidedly more interest in the black man than in the white, I glanced furtively at him as I scattered chloride of lime. I had seen much contraband, but