Timothy Findley's The Wars is a piece of modern literature which depicts the vividness of the First World war and its implications. The novel is unique in that it violates the normal chronological presentation of events by incorporating flashbacks, which are communicated through the perspectives of multiple characters. Also, the complexity of the novel lies in rigid connections between the major themes presented such as war, animals, and privacy. To begin, the loss of innocence is a prominent theme which inevitably arises from the background of war. Intuitively, the loss of innocence can be defined as any process that helps to widen the observation of cruelties, tragedies, and injustice which are embedded in the world. The loss of innocence …show more content…
People who are innocent remain naive and optimistic under the fake reality in which human convention has established. The loss of innocence is a necessary process for the realization of the failures of human convention exemplified in the cruelties of war, the destruction of nature, and the depreciation of the value of life.
It's clear that war can be logically associated with the loss of innocence as it is a gruesome form of reality. In war, there are corrupt rules in which soldiers have to abide by. One of which is the rule that "no one went back - even for a dying comrade" (Findley 118). Certainly, this statement is notorious for demonstrating the immoral nature of the human conventions of war. Not only does this questionable military law degrade humanity in a way such that it erases the higher quality of behavior that humans are assumed to possess, it also disregards human compassion as it implies that the objective of the war is far more important than human lives. In addition to degrading humanity, the conventions of war also destroy human civilization. Asides from the rules of warfare, war itself is a human construct which opposes the civilization
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Life in any form is an embodiment of hope, and the conventions of war devalue life. The convention suggests that taking lives should be an easy task for a "war hero" to complete. Taffler demonstrates this convention as he "took aim and threw a stone. It arrived and the bottle was demolished" (Findley 29). The act of killing people can be euphemized to destroying bottles, the act of shooting a gun can be represented by throwing a stone, and the entire act of war can be compared to knocking down bottles with stones. As Taffler reduces the act of war to destroying bottles, he is displaying very little of the moral self by comparing human life to a bottle that he could demolish with a stone. Additionally, Taffler loses innocence and becomes aware of his guilt which is amplifying proportionally to the amount of people he killed: "He must have been rubbing his wounds to make them bleed" (Findley 156). Taffler attempting suicide is indicative of the fact that humans cannot withstand the burden of being a killing machine, whose ideology is imposed by the convention to kill as many people as possible. However, humans are not mere killing machines but are rather compassionate beings capable of feeling guilt. In war, those who kill the most enemies become praised as war heroes, but this convention fails to realize that humans accumulate guilt and lose innocence as a response to performing and
Throughout history authors have been known to include didactic content into their novels that either use literary conventions to target the readers, forcing them to be more attentive while reading, or the use of characters in the story to portray ideas, as well as; major historical events that would assist the reader’s understanding of what is being said in the text. Albert Einstein is a famous scientist and one of his best known theories is the “Theory of Relativity”, according to Britannica’s relativity article “Special relativity is limited to objects that are moving at constant speed in a straight line, which is called inertial motion. Beginning with the behaviour of light (and all other electromagnetic radiation), the theory of special
But how many still obey the speed limit despite some previously been caught and pay a fine? Human’s rationalization says that it won’t happen again. The same idea with a view to war, like other countless lessons, human nature fails to correct these mistakes from happening time and time again. This lesson transcends time, it is an established notion in every country and in every human, throughout the world. From Verdun, Gettysburg, to Waterloo, examples of how war can be in any century.
(H) “They feel guilty for having survived, so they pretend the bad things never happened” (Trumbo). (Th) In Tim O’Brien’s 1990 metafictional novel, The Things They Carried, he exemplifies in the chapters “Ambush” and “The Man I Killed” how the ability to express the inevitable guilt from serving in war often determines whether one will survive post-war life (M) through anaphora, celestial imagery, and vivid imagination. (Pt) Anaphora manifests how a person’s expression of guilt from serving in war decides whether one can survive after war.
Some people still wonder if war can be justified by its principles or cause. It can be argued that war can be justified due to the principles of freedom and justice that soldiers are willing to die for. However, many argue against this saying that war should be avoided at all costs due to collateral damage and the massive loss of innocent life. In the book My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, Tim faces the biggest dilemma of his life when he has to decide whether to side with his brother who believes in the principles of war or his father who believes war should be avoided at all costs. When the novel comes to a conclusion, Tim decides that he is neutral and does not agree to either argument due to the irony contained within the deaths of
Professor, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Donald M. Murray, in his article, “The Stranger in the Photo Is Me”, suggests that innocence cannot be regained once it is lost, and he supports this claim by first reflecting on who he was before the photograph. Then, he detaches himself from the photograph because of his personal development throughout the war he fought in, and finally concluding that one cannot regain innocence after something as traumatic as war. Murray’s purpose is to argue in order to prove that war changes a person, adopting a nostalgic tone for the elder, over sixty, generation that is his audience. Murray admits that he used to never care to look at photographs, an example of his past self, but now, he gives them “a second glance” even “a third” (8).
Throughout the ages, wars have wreaked havoc and caused great destruction that lead to the loss of millions of lives. However, wars also have an immensely destructive effect on the individual soldier. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, one is able to see exactly to what extent soldiers suffered during World War 1 as well as the effect that war had on them. In this essay I will explain the effect that war has on young soldiers by referring to the loss of innocence of young soldiers, the disillusionment of the soldiers and the debasement of soldiers to animalistic men. Many soldiers entered World War 1 as innocent young boys, but as they experienced the full effect of the war they consequently lost their innocence.
War is often romanticized as a necessary and heroic means of achieving justice and peace. However, Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front exposes the brutal reality of war and its devastating consequences. Through the experiences of the protagonist, Paul Baumer, Remarque vividly illustrates how war destroys individuals physically and mentally, leaving behind shattered souls and lost cultures. Firstly, war causes physical destruction that not only kills soldiers but also damages the environment and infrastructure. Baumer and his comrades witness the horrors of modern warfare, including the use of chemical weapons and the trenches' squalor and disease.
“There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.” Within the World Wars’, deaths in the battlegrounds were not the only lives countries lost; World War I and World War II caused the immense loss of souls (Souls Wars) by the productions of deaths in battlefields and in genocides. Significantly, World War I started the entire flood of deaths within a chain effect. For instance, the war all started with the assassination of a duke of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, “On June 28, 1914, a young Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Sarajevo, Bosnia… the assassination set off a chain of events that would lead to the start of World War I barely one month later.”
¬¬¬¬¬The Wars Essay The concept of resilience is often described as being able to recover from difficult experiences or pasts, where one’s resilience could be impacted by drastic changes that occur in their lives. It is something that guides one’s decisions and often defines their morals and what individuals perceive to be right or wrong; depending on the situation they are encountering. Resilience is highly dependent on the thought of empathy, where the resilience of people who have experienced empathy will be different from others who haven’t. How individuals deal with these differences determines one’s level of empathy and also impacts their resilience.
The novel Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut dictates the many issues of war. One issue is war robs human beings of its morality; this is so unavoidable that war traps people until it has stolen their final shred of decency. Throughout the novel the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, is trapped and forced to endure awful situations. He is figuratively “trapped in amber” (77), stripped of his clothes put on display, and enclosed in a slaughterhouse with the dead carcasses of animals. A few of these times his only hope for survival is to stay in these tiny spaces and tolerate the inhuman circumstances.
The Wars is a symbolic masterpiece that illustrates the great impact war brings on the microcosm of society and how individuals juxtaposed to the war are affected. The novel itself requires active reading; because without it, the novel would seem very simplistic; however, after further examination, readers can evidently recognize the complexity of Robert’s character with the aid of many heteroglossic components, techniques, devices, and the reworking of literary conventions. Robert’s physical, mental and emotional journey he endeavours, followed by the constant re-evaluations of his truths and becoming a more proficient soldier, can be seen through a formalist perspective with the use of foreshadowing to signify Robert’s transition from a sane to insane soldier; the utilization of animal imagery highlighting Robert’s development through the horrific experiences of war; and the several themes in the text to illustrate Robert’s evolution as a soldier through his inner
Lost Innocence Contrary to popular thinking, child soldiers are not always as innocent as they seem. In fact, a large number of child soldiers escape their crimes because of the belief that they are victims when frequently they are the perpetrator in this detailed situation. In fact, Many child soldiers quickly adapt to the unhealthy lifestyle, are not held accountable, and fail to resist, yet they are dangerously and wrongfully allowed to be released into society. One main reason that child soldiers are not as innocent as they seem would be how quickly they adapt to the unhealthy lifestyle. In one article, the author describes how fast the children’s innocence is lost and how children accept the style of brutality.
In the short story The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty, a main theme is that war is cruel. This is supported by many details within the story. War makes people do things that they normally wouldn’t do, mostly because it is their duty to protect what they believe in or their country. For example, the
Short Story/Film Script Analysis Novel and Theme: One of the main themes Timothy Findley identifies in The Wars is that children lose innocence as they mature. There is great value in overcoming challenges and obstacles because that is how true character is developed. Summary:
Hi my name is Timothy Findley, the author of the fiction novel, “The Wars.” I was born in Toronto Ontario on the 30thof November 1930. I am so honoured to be here. Accepting the Governor General’s award for literature. I still can’t believe it myself that I would see such a day in my life.