War Literature: A Critical Analysis of Timothy Findley's The Wars
Added on 2023-06-11
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Running head: WAR LITERATURE
War Literature
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:
War Literature
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:
1WAR LITERATURE
“I doubt we will ever be forgiven. All I hope is – they'll remember we were human beings.”
The above quoted lines of Robert Ross from the famous historical meta-fiction “The
Wars” of Timothy Findley provides an overview of the mental torment as well as the feeling
of guilt which the central character of the novel and the other soldiers feel in the novel. The
machinery of war has been much glorified as well as celebrated by the majority of the human
beings since the traditional times (Kröller). However, in the recent times, especially after the
First World War and the Second World War, the opinion of the people has drastically
changed towards the machinery of war (Phillips). This can be seen as a reflection of the
impact made by the various literary works like “The Wars” of Timothy Findley, Erich
Maria Remarque's “All Quiet on the Western Front”, Hemingway’s “For Whom the
Bell Tolls” and “A Farewell to Arms” and others (Phillips). In the opinion of Guy
Vanderhaeghe (2005), the novel “The Wars” is “strangely exalted and disturbed by an
encounter with a novel harrowing and uplifting, a novel that was both a marvelous work of
art and a passionate indictment of the first cruel idiocy of the twentieth century”. This essay
will discuss about some of the predominant issues raised by the author in the novel like war,
the concept of heroism, the act of the central character of the novel and others.
The concept of heroism, bravery, glory and others has traditional being attributed to
war and thus the machinery of war is generally being upheld as the platform wherein the
individuals can showcase their heroism (Grace). However, the novel “The Wars” seems to
repudiate this particular concept by way of showing the ugly and the inhumane sides of the
machinery of war (Stevens). It is a reflection of this particular that the central character of the
novel views war as a machinery which gives rise to inhumanity and other crude behaviors of
the human beings. Thus, the protagonist of the novel though he joins the war on his own
accord and initially admires the heroism as well as the bravery of Eugene Taffler, the much
celebrated war hero of the novel yet towards the end of the novel it is seen that he comes to
“I doubt we will ever be forgiven. All I hope is – they'll remember we were human beings.”
The above quoted lines of Robert Ross from the famous historical meta-fiction “The
Wars” of Timothy Findley provides an overview of the mental torment as well as the feeling
of guilt which the central character of the novel and the other soldiers feel in the novel. The
machinery of war has been much glorified as well as celebrated by the majority of the human
beings since the traditional times (Kröller). However, in the recent times, especially after the
First World War and the Second World War, the opinion of the people has drastically
changed towards the machinery of war (Phillips). This can be seen as a reflection of the
impact made by the various literary works like “The Wars” of Timothy Findley, Erich
Maria Remarque's “All Quiet on the Western Front”, Hemingway’s “For Whom the
Bell Tolls” and “A Farewell to Arms” and others (Phillips). In the opinion of Guy
Vanderhaeghe (2005), the novel “The Wars” is “strangely exalted and disturbed by an
encounter with a novel harrowing and uplifting, a novel that was both a marvelous work of
art and a passionate indictment of the first cruel idiocy of the twentieth century”. This essay
will discuss about some of the predominant issues raised by the author in the novel like war,
the concept of heroism, the act of the central character of the novel and others.
The concept of heroism, bravery, glory and others has traditional being attributed to
war and thus the machinery of war is generally being upheld as the platform wherein the
individuals can showcase their heroism (Grace). However, the novel “The Wars” seems to
repudiate this particular concept by way of showing the ugly and the inhumane sides of the
machinery of war (Stevens). It is a reflection of this particular that the central character of the
novel views war as a machinery which gives rise to inhumanity and other crude behaviors of
the human beings. Thus, the protagonist of the novel though he joins the war on his own
accord and initially admires the heroism as well as the bravery of Eugene Taffler, the much
celebrated war hero of the novel yet towards the end of the novel it is seen that he comes to
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