(It was then, perhaps, the first inkling came that Findley recounts the childhood and young manhood of Ross, who is born into a wealthy Toronto family and joins the Canadian Field Artillery in 1915. Rabbits, along with Rowena, symbolize innocence and purity. It symbolizes companionship and loyalty, as the coyote willingly ran with Robert. He and his fellow soldiers, Poole, Levitt, Rodwell, Bates, Devlin, Bonnycastle, and Roots have first-hand experiences with trench warfare and witness the horrors of modern war; mustard gas attacks, flamethrowers, and long-range explosives are common, and many men die torturously painful deaths. He is holding the skull of a small animal in his hands. At the same time, the quote can be read to mean that Robert wishes the war would end so that such tranquility and beauty can continue to exist. It received three Genie Awards from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television in 1984, in the categories of Best Achievement in Sound Editing (Sharon Lackie, Bruce Nyznik, and Bernard Bordeleau), Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Martha Henry), and Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Jackie Burroughs), and was nominated for four more in the categories of Best Picture, Best Achievement in Film Editing (Tony Lower), Best Achievement in Overall Sound (Hans Peter Strobl), and Best Screenplay (Findley). Having wandered alone for a week since the incident with Captain Leather, ...the narration, the mythology of the events after this point is “muddled.” Some say that, ...that no one had been given permission to remove them. Was Robert Ross, the protagonist of “The Wars”, a hero? The snapshots feature, ...a present-day interview with Marian Turner, a nurse from World War I who remembers treating. Even though Robert is determined, he was not a natural killer; this weakness was seen in his inability to kill the injured horse or Rowena's rabbits. It seemed unmanly. It is revealed that, ...switches to the reader’s point of view: you are told that you are looking through. It was a sight I’d rather not have seen. He later loses his arms. When Mrs. Ross hears that her son is missing in action she goes blind.

There is evidence of war, and Ross is shown to be in the company of a black horse and a dog. It was the “we” that doomed him. Since man has walked on earth, he had always been in conflict with himself and other human beings. It sang and sang and sang, till Robert rose and walked away.

During one of the German gas attacks, Robert Ross is able to save his troops from poisonous gas by telling them how to prevent the gas from entering their lungs. When Taffler loses his arms he no longer wants to live because his arms were so much a part of him and his identity that without them he doesn't have the will to live.

He is a very honourable and passionate man, who most say is also handsome. Timothy Findley 's Governor General's Award-winning novel of the First World War tells the story of Robert Ross, a sensitive nineteen-year-old Canadian officer who reacts to the horror and dehumanization of trench warfare with an act of treason that could also be interpreted as a life-affirming deed of heroism and love. No one else can ever live your life and no one else will ever know what you know. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our, Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Penguin Australia edition of, Lady Emmeline d’Orsey / The Marchioness of St. Aubyn’s.

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Air represents life. Robert believed that humans are no better and no worse than any other creature on our planet. Robert Ross enlisted when he was eighteen and served as a second lieutenant in the Canadian field artillery from 1916-1917. Instant downloads of all 1364 LitChart PDFs Growing increasingly disillusioned with the war and its trivialization of both human and animal lives, Robert asks Captain Leather to let him save their company’s horses and mules from the impending fire that is consuming the battlefield. He is currently 19 years of age when he enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1916 in WWI. First as he's introduced using them to hit bottles with stones, and even later when he helps Robert toss Harris's ashes into the river. Robert Raymond Ross (born on December 15, 1896)[1] was a Canadian soldier who went to Europe to fight the German forces during World War I.

Robert loved and respected his father very much, and always thought of him as of his role model. Before Robert can open them, the roof collapses on him and the horses. The character of protagonist Robert Ross was inspired by T. E. Lawrence and the author's uncle, Thomas Irving Findley, to whom the author dedicated the novel.

But Mrs. Ross just stood at the windows of the private car and was afraid to go outdoors. Surely that had been his intention. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!”, “This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. Following a shelling of the dugout, his fellow soldier Levitt loses his mind, and Robert finds himself close to the brink. [12], Learn how and when to remove this template message, Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, "Some Personal Relationships in Timothy Findley's, "Nexen Presents The Theatre Calgary World Premiere", Governor General's Award for English-language fiction, We'll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Wars&oldid=977143391, Articles that may contain original research from September 2009, All articles that may contain original research, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. In June 1916, following his time at St. Aubyn’s, Robert is sent back to France and journeys onto Belgium. Robert is saved but badly burned, and all the horses and possibly the dog are killed. Juliet d'Orsey gives an account of Robert, whom she knew at the age of twelve and for whom she had romantic feelings. Robert Ross was the protagonist of the novel, "The Wars". The novel flashes back to January 1916. As an intermediary between Ross and the reader, the narrator narrows the gap between past and present, allowing Findley to foreground the process - and difficulty - of writing historical and biographical narratives. Why is this happening to us, Davenport? Not quite gunners or drivers yet—just as I can’t quite feel that I am a soldier myself.”. The image is so far removed from the horror of the war that he can't imagine that one is even taking place. No. Robert does not only judge Captain Leather, but the war itself. He then fires at Robert but misses. His personality is serious, practical, determined, and observant of things that other people cannot see.

...that the soldiers and their horses must swim across. Struggling with distance learning? ", The plural "Wars" in the title implies that there are multiple conflicts within the novel. Robert then returns to the front. I won’t. We are really sorry but we cannot send the sample immediately. In my opinion, Robert Ross is a hero. Oh—far from it! Peggy’s boyfriend, Clinton Brown, is there in his soldier’s uniform, and, ...from Mr. Ross’s factory named Teddy Budge is called in to kill the rabbits, and, Mrs. Ross breaks into a fit of laughter, but, After a period of silence, Mrs. Ross suddenly turns on, The coyote scales the bank of the valley and looks directly at, ...soldiers and the enemy lines, likening both sides to “one little David against another.” As, ...of 1915, it rains heavily in North America and Europe.

We survive in one another. Heather Lawson. What if they were mad—or stupid? Despite this guilt, Robert is observant and clever, and even saves his men from a chlorine gas attack by utilizing simple information he learned in his high school chemistry class. Believe it. Although Robert Ross does not blindly follow orders of his commanders, Robert Ross is a hero because he is a courageous man who always helps those who are in need, a man who cares about his family, and a man who believes in life above everything. Robert called out very distinctly (and there are twenty witnesses to this): “We shall not be taken.”. But he’d relented. When she sees Barbara go into, ...and cannot stop crying. Levitt said: “Oh.” He seemed somehow demoralized by this news.

Your parents could be crazy too. Once again he meets Taffler, another patient at the d'Orsey home; Robert is devastated to find that Taffler has lost both of his arms in the war. After his rapists have left him alone in the cell, One week into his return to the front, the Germans execute a fourteen-hour barrage on. Robert feels guilty because he was unable to save her since he was making love to his pillows in his bedroom when he should have been watching her. Lawrence was hurled against a wall—Scott entombed in ice and wind—Mallory blasted on the face of Everest. Robert’s fellow soldiers, as well as most of his family, view him as a traitor and disown him for his actions. [8] Among the most common or meaningful: The four classical elements of earth, air, fire, and water are all featured in the novel. Juliet d'Orsey remains by Robert's side until his death in 1922. The work has been translated into nine languages and is the basis of a 1983 film directed by Robin Phillips. Thus, he feels guilty throughout the novel for inadvertently causing her death.

Men and women like Robert and Barbara—Harris and Taffler…you met and you saw so clearly and cut so sharply into one another’s lives. He destroyed it absolutely. Robert was so troubled that he turned against his own people. On his way there, he is raped by four of his fellow soldiers, an assault that robs him of the last shred of his innocence that has been gradually corrupted by the war. In another hole there was a rat that was alive but trapped because of the waterlogged condition of the earth that kept collapsing every time it tried to ascend the walls. Have not found what you were looking for? Sorry, but copying text is forbidden on this website. Animals appear throughout the story. At eighteen, he enlisted and served as a second lieutenant in the Canadian field artillery from 1916-1917.

Robert heads back to battle on a small train. She sees, ...and “blundering” into places where she does not belong. Since he could not be kept in prison, he was given leave to stay in St Aubyn's for longterm treatment. In April 1915, when Robert is eighteen, his beloved older sister Rowena falls from her wheelchair and dies. Why? Robert is instructed to place the guns in a crater that is formed by the shelling attacks. Here Robert sees Taffler having sadomasochistic[1] sex with another man.
When he realizes that he is the only one in the group with a gas mask and he sees that one of his troops is injured, Robert decides to give away his gas this soldier.

The Wars Summary As the novel begins, we meet Robert Ross, a Canadian soldier sitting with his hands between his legs while holding a pistol. He couldn’t save people, but he could save the horses. In every battle, ordinary people show heroism and a lot of courage, which either go unnoticed or are forgotten after a short period of time.
Drawn into the madness of war, Ross commits "a last desperate act to declare his commitment to life in the midst of death." Mud must be a Flemish word. Robert was described as being handsome, and desirable. While Robert and his fellow soldiers fight for their lives on the European battlefront, their families on the home front and Western society at large are also struggling to reconcile the mass brutality of World War I with their former notions of faith, tradition, and morality.

“He was unique. As he descends the side of crater, Robert slips and smashes his knees on a discarded machine gun, creatin the men start descending the side of crater, there is a sudden gas attack. [1] Robert's personality is serious, practical, determined, and observant of things that other people cannot see. In Penguin's Modern Classic edition, published 2005, Canadian author Guy Vanderhaeghe wrote the “Introduction” for The Wars. When the shells land on the barnyard and kill the very horses he was attempting to save, the violent impulses that Robert has sought to repress come to the surface.