The Wars

 

The Wars

When I was told that I had to read the wars by: Timothy Findley for my CM1135 English class I had no idea what to expect. I was about a week and a half late staring this course so I fell a little behind. By that time most students had almost finished the novel. I remember sitting there in my first class listening to the discussion on the novel. My teacher discussed important characters, the importance of the symbolic value of animals, and important scenes in the novel. I have to saw that my initial reaction was shock. I had never read a novel before that gave the readers such an explicit insight into the horrors of war. I found it hard to understand how a man like Robert Ross could go from someone so innocent to someone, well someone so cold.

       Robert started out as an innocent young man who really never even had much experience with girls. When Robert was pressured into going to the whore house he really didn’t know what to do, nor did he appear comfortable.

One of the major factors that influenced Robert’s decision to go to war was the death of his sister. Rowena was Robert’s dearly beloved sister. He spent much of his time with her, and knew how much she loved her rabbits. After she died Robert chose to go to war. I noticed that throughout the novel at the hardest times during Robert’s life he would see an image of the rabbits.

I also found it fascinating that Robert ran with a coyote one day in military training. He followed the coyote for over a half an hour till the coyote rested for ten minutes and crossed the valley to the other side , and barked at Robert to let him know that the valley was safe. I admire his strong connection with animals.

One thing I did not enjoy about this novel was reading about the rape scene. This scene was very detailed and explicit. I really did not enjoy visualizing the rape. I can’t imagine what Robert must have been feeling as he was being raped, and on top of that the shock of finding out that it was not patients from the mental hospital that he had thought had raped him but instead it was his fellow soldiers. How would you ever be able to trust anyone again after that? I think after that experience Robert’s mental state began to rapidly go downhill.

In conclusion I did enjoy reading this novel however I can’t help but wonder why Timothy Findley chose to include the rape scene in the novel. I would recommend this book to anyone who has in interest in world war one.