Timothy Findley 's The Wars

Which is most likely due to the brutality witnessed in the war and loss of friends. My father recounts Robert as being very reserved, strict, and constantly on edge. Furthermore, he attributed Robert’s actions to “having seen things that no one should ever have to see” (Randle, 2014).

The psychological effects, the mentality of fighting and killing another human, and the sheer decimation of human values is what makes war atrocious. War is not only fought on the battlefield though. This book also describes the feelings of a soldier fighting his own demons that war has brought on. The battle that the soldier has with himself, is almost if not more damaging than the physical battle of war. He will never forget his experience with battle, no matter how hard he tries the memories of artillery, blood, and death cannot be erased. “I prayed like you to survive, but look at me now. It is over for us who are dead, but you must struggle, and will carry the memories all your life. People back home will wonder why you can't forget.” (Sledge). This struggle still happens to soldiers today. Sledge’s words of the struggles still captures the effects of warfare that lingers today. The other effects that war has on the men is the instability that surrounds them at every hour of the day. They are either engaged in battle having bullets and artillery fired at them, or waiting for battle just so they can be deposited back in the pressure cooker of survival. “Lying in a foxhole sweating out an enemy artillery or mortar barrage or waiting to dash across open ground under machine-gun or artillery fire defied any concept of time.”

To be engaged in war is to be engaged in an armed conflict. Death is an all too ordinary product of war. It is an unsolicited reward for many soldiers that are fighting for their country’s own fictitious freedom. For some of these men, the battlefield is a glimpse into hell, and for others, it is a means to heaven. Many people worry about what happens during war and what will become of their loved ones while they’re fighting, but few realize what happens to those soldiers once they come home. The short stories "Soldier's Home” by Ernest Hemingway and "Speaking of Courage” by Tim O'Brien explore the thematic after effects of war and how it impacts a young person's life. Young people who

97). The invasion of Ross parallels what the war has done to him and his fellow soldiers; the mental destruction caused by the terrors and what it has made people become. York defends how the scene has “power to disturb us profoundly. And yet, it dramatizes the final betrayal of Robert Ross.invading the intensely private frontier of the human body” (p. 50). Following the traumatic event, Ross burns the sole picture he has of Rowena, not in “an act of anger – but an act of charity” (p. 180).

It’s no surprise that soldiers will more-than-likely never come home the same. Those who have not served do not often think of the torment and negative consequences that the soldiers who make it out of war face. Erich Remarque was someone who was able to take the torment that he faced after his experience in World War I and shed light on the brutality of war. Remarque was able to illustrate the psychological problems that was experienced by men in battle with his best-selling novel All Quiet on the Western Front (Hunt). The symbolism used in the classic anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front is significant not only for showing citizens the negative attributes of war, but also the mental, physical, and emotional impact that the vicious war had on the soldiers.

In this world, there is no individual more tragic than the one who gazes into their future and is only able to see a perpetual cycle of despair and agony. War, in particular, has this incomprehensibly dark power—the ability to drive even the most cheerful among us into the oppressive void of depression. Indeed, the total and complete loss of hope is among the most destructive consequences of war on the human psyche. An expression of this phenomenon is visible in Paul Baumer’s statement regarding the true psychological state of soldiers. When reflecting upon the experience of being in the military, Baumer says “We are little flames poorly sheltered by frail walls against the storm of dissolution and madness, in which we flicker and sometimes almost go out...Our only comfort is the steady breathing of our comrades asleep, and thus we

We have all seen or read about the political and social upheavals caused by war. Some may have even experienced it first-hand. Throughout history war has had negative psychological implications on those effected. However, there is no greater negative impact of war than the psychological and emotional turmoil that it causes individual soldiers.

To be able to understand how war brings out the worst in people, we need to consider how intentional suffering toward the ‘enemy’ brings out the worst in people and to what extent. Vonnegut uses the protagonist, Billy, as a reflection on the trauma of war experienced by an individual, and the coping mechanisms displayed by Billy, including; time travel and withdrawing from reality into a fantasy world. The author explores post-traumatic stress throughout the text and puts it into use and gives it value in the context, enabling the reader to experience Billy’s mental chaos as a consequence of his involvement with war. Ultimately, war can be viewed as a desperate measure of countries attempting to reach their former glory and thrive for economic success, in exchange for the well-being of all people affected by war.

Overall, the novel expresses the transition of Robert Ross from being naïve to a brave soldier. The Wars by Timothy Findley explains how Robert often undergoes experiences that relate to a death of a loved one and family turmoil. Notably, the effects of private and public wars that make the protagonist stronger and wiser. Robert’s loss of innocence through the course of the story which resulted in his inner growth and development as a person. These events are a perfect illustration of the idea of coming of age, both psychologically and morally through the guidance of Robert

The text, ‘The Things They Carried', is an excellent example which reveals how individuals are changed for the worse through their first hand experience of war. Following the lives of the men both during and after the war in a series of short stories, the impact of the war is accurately portrayed, and provides a rare insight into the guilt stricken minds of soldiers. ‘The Things They Carried' shows the impact of the war in its many forms: the suicide of an ex-soldier upon his return home; the lessening sanity of a medic as the constant death surrounds him; the trauma and guilt of all the soldiers after seeing their friends die, and feeling as if they could have saved them; and the deaths of the soldiers, the most negative impact a war

War can destroy a man both in body and mind for the rest of his life. In “The Sniper,” Liam O’Flaherty suggests the horror of war not only by presenting its physical dangers, but also by showing its psychological effects. We are left to wonder which has the longer lasting effect—the visible physical scars or the ones on the inside?

An American machine gunner, Charles Yale Harrison, says in his novel, Generals Die in Bed: “[War] take[s] everything from us: our lives, our blood, our hearts; even the few lousy hours of rest, they take those, too. Our job is to give, and theirs is to take,” (Harrison, 26). In this example, Harrison explains how war is the most selfish and strongest of all evils; war continues to take everything someone has until they have nothing left to take. The war also created long-term effects for soldiers; one being shell-shock. This term is used to describe the damage of constant loud shelling during war which greatly affected those who were not exposed to shelling frequently (Unnamed). Another term that is still used today is PTSD, (“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”), which is used to describe the effect war had on the soldiers afterward (Unnamed). World War I brought major psychological disorders upon the soldiers during and after the war had ended leading to great damage for the rest of the victim’s

To sum up, this novel narrates the journey of a soldier throughout the war in Iraq and his mind altering experience. The war represents a major downfall in his life in which he encounters many graphic scenes. Even though John describes his experiences in the war as a

Robert Ross, the protagonist of Timothy Findley’s novel The Wars undergoes a disturbing violation when his fellow soldiers rape him; this is a significant turning point for Robert’s character and a section of the book Findley uses to address many themes. Throughout the book we witness Robert maturing and experiencing many hardships that will help create the man he becomes. The most significant of these trials is the scene at the insane asylum because it is where Robert looses the last connection to his innocence and his faith in humanity’s virtuousness. Findley also uses this scene to address the topic of homophobia in that era, and

The war shaped Robert from innocent and naive to a stronger more complex individual. From his tough times such as his rape, he still learns to find a purpose and to live his life. Even after everything he’s been through from losing Rowena and Harris, from the dreadful experiences of war itself and from homosexual rape, Robert still is finding happiness. For example in the end of the book “he is holding Juliet’s hand. And he is smiling” (pg. 217), this shows us that even though adversity has a huge impact in shaping an individual’s identity, we have the power to still turn things around. ‘The Wars’, shows how individuals can rise from adversity even if it changes there former identity’s. It teaches the reader that events can change us, yet we have the power to decide whether we will let the adversity crumble us, or if we will rise above the difficulties and make our inner sprits and old personality return back to