Chaos in their wings…

While reading this novel I have noticed every time that a bird is seen or heard there is danger just beyond its flapping wings. “ They were both trying to joke. But they couldn’t. There must be something terribly wrong and they knew it but neither one knew how to put it into words. The birds, being gone, had taken some mysterious presence with them. There was an awful sense of void - as if the world had emptied.” (Findley page 76) The birds are symbolising the danger and terrors that are to come. Fleeing from the danger and atrocities of war. Seconds later Robert falls into the big mud pit where he almost loses his life. Then once again later on in the novel “The silence could only mean one thing. The Germans were going to attack. All at once- a bird sang over their heads. Someone swore;  as if the bird had given them away.” (Findley page 122). Robert and his men are planting a mortar gun in a giant crater created by another mortar shell. This crater is twenty feet or less away from the Germans front lines. Seconds after this bird flies above, Toxic chlorine gas is hauntingly approaching the crater that the men are in. It does not say anywhere in the text that the birds are a sign of danger to come, but basically every time any kind of danger that occurs your more then likely to find a bird near by in the reading.

Dear Jesus- he was going to drown

While Robert is leading his men forward through the muddy war grounds he hears noises. As he walks forward leaving his men behind he is engulfed in mud up to his waist.  Trying to twist himself out of the mud he only sank further. Robert is so scared that his hearts pumping and the thought of death in his mind. This is the first time in the novel where Robert feels as if he is going to die.  But after a few more minutes he manages to pull himself free of the muddy hole of doom and save himself. The classic near death experience happens to a lot of people and they are almost never the same after going through the trauma of seeing your life flash before your eyes. I can relate to this I have almost died once in my lifetime which involved me almost drowning in lake Ontario after I flipped my jet ski.This novel is all about Robert trying to save himself from the very start. He tries to save himself from the pain and heartbreak of his little sister by joining with the Canadian Forces only to realise that war is no place for someone who is already slightly mentally unstable. All of the atrocities in war that you can physically smell, touch, taste, hear and see can start to drive a person to insanity. War is no place to forget your problems it will most likely remind you of them and make things a whole lot worse in the long run with all the horrible sightings you may have to endure, which Robert does indeed.

“Something Insidious remarked in Roberts mind”

                  This quote deals with the situation Robert is in while sailing to Europe. After a terrible storm one of the horses on board broke its leg. Robert being the ships stable master had the honour of putting the horse down. After all a horse with a broken leg is useless. Robert being the animal lover he is thinks it is insanity to shoot a horse with a colt pistol. But it must be done. Robert at first thinks he cannot do it he is so afraid. But with an officer watching him he must do it to prove himself as a soldier. He puts the colt behind the horses ear he braces himself but he cant watch because the horse is looking him right in the eyes. Robert pulls the trigger blood manages to get all over him but the horse was not dead it thrashed around as if the devil was trying to take its soul. Robert kept pulling the trigger but the horse would not die “ Jesus; for christ sakes - die “ I need more light ,’ he was shaking; his voice full of anger.” ( Findley page 65)  After Robert pumps the entire clip into the horse he drops to his knees. Imagining this its like a horror movie, the title of this blog and the quote in the novel reminded me of the recent horror movie Insidious that just came out. Robert is so innocent he just experienced his second traumatic experience, brutally slaughtering a horse. The first being the death of his beloved sister. This is hard to do for any person with a heart but for Robert the innocent little animal lover this is insane. After this detrimental experience Robert has had a mental breakdown in which he will never recover from. The Innocence Robert once had is gone. For the first time he has taken the life of a living breathing creature. This really is a huge addition to the theme of innocence and the theme of war corrupting the mind.

Mrs. Ross downfall

          The day after Robert sets sail to go fight in what’s left of the horrific mud wastelands of  western Europe. The rest of the country is paying visits to the church to go root on there boys and pray for them. To put the power of God on the Canadian side. While the rest of the country is all proud of there young men Mrs. Ross feels very differently on the matter. There isn’t any hope left in her mind. She is still very depressed about  her first child’s death. Now that Robert is taking off to Europe to fight Nazi’s, she believes he is as good as dead. “ shaking one another’s hands as if to congratulate themselves that all their sons had gone away to die” (Findley, page 53) This shows how pathetic she thinks everyone is being, getting excited and proud of their country for fighting a pointless war. One of the biggest themes forming within the novel as I read is innocence. Through animals and Robert but the innocence here is all the young men going off to fight in a battle that they did not engage or even need to be a part of. Canada was still just a starting out country during world war 1 and we were just becoming established as our own. In a way World War 1 took away Canada’s innocence which many believe is a good thing but Mrs. Ross believes this war is idiotic. “ What does it mean- to kill your children? Kill them and then … go in there and sing about it!” (Findley page 54) This is a foreshadowing moment to me. She is so set on Roberts death that I can almost guarantee that he dies by the end of the novel. I will be very surprised if it turns out ok for especially since so many people were slaughtered in the early wars. Another theme coming up in the novel is how war can destroy you mentally. Mrs Ross has had a traumatic experience with her Daughter dieing before her which no parent ever wants. Now that Robert has left for war she has become a little strange in the head. This is most likely why she is saying the things she is about all the people in the church.

Summary Part 2

Robert meets Eugene Taffler, a war hero while in training. Eugene Taffler is very big and strong. Robert's first encounter with him occurs while he is looking for some lost horses. He comes across Taffler throwing stones at glass bottles, and later at a brothel where Taffler is engaging in gay sex with a large male, named "the Swede."
While on the S.S. Massanabie to England, Ross has to kill a horse that broke its leg during a storm. Robert struggles a lot trying to kill the horse, firing and missing many times before landing his shots.

    Robert is now in France and in charge of a convoy. He has become lost in the fog and separated from his men. He falls into a muddy sinkhole and nearly drowns. After 'saving himself' he is met by Poole and Levitt, two of his men.

Beginning of a Theme

 Every story in the history of writing has a theme, some are very easy to come across and some you really have to look for. The one that I have found in “The Wars” is right there in the middle. To some it may be obvious and to others it might be difficult. I believe to what I have read so far in the novel the theme is based around guilt. The guilt that Robert Ross is trying to run away from and hide in hope he forgets it all. The guilt in his mind is the death of his older sister Rowena. As soon as she dies he tries to find a way to leave his home. By joining the army he puts as much space as he can from him and his family. Some foreshadowing that I link  to this theme, is at the beginning of the novel when Robert sets free all of the trapped horses. This makes me think that it is like him trying to free all of his trapped guilt. He also runs away with all of these horses into the woods showing he is running from the guilt and heartbreak he faced. Hopefully this is indeed one of the themes that Timothy Findley has left for me to find. I’m sure the further I read into it the more I will find about either my theme or even a new theme.

Symbols in The novel

There are a few things that I have noticed in the novel. There are many symbolic items or beings in the novel that you don’t see right away, but it begins to become more clear the more you read. The first symbolic phrase you could say I found in the novel is the most obvious and easy to see. It is right on the front cover of the book itself. Its in the title.. “ The Wars”.  You notice that it is plural. This means there are multiple wars happening. The only physical actual war being fought is the World War. But there is many other wars happening in the novel. The wars that Robert Ross are fighting emotionally in his head. Trying to forget the guilt he feels for not being with Rowena when she died. The ways he tried to get over this was to run away and join the army to get as far away from his family and home as he could. Another symbol that appears is Rowena’s rabbits. They symbolize the purity and innocence of Robert Ross. He is 19 years old and really hasn’t lived much of his life. He doesn’t know the evil in the world until he joins the army. He realises just how corrupt and self destroying man really is. Finally the last symbol I have found so far from what I have read is a coyote that Robert runs with in training camp. He runs for a very long time with a wild coyote. The coyote represents the relationship between man and beast. It can mean friendship, companionship, and loyalty towards Robert. The coyote willingly ran with Robert. In this section of the book where Robert runs with the coyote you get your third look of Roberts love for animals. The first being him saving the horses and the second trying to save the rabbits.These symbols all give you hints into the mind of Robert Ross and help you to understand him more clearly.