“The Wars” Timothy Findley

This novel written by Timothy Findley is called, The Wars. It is a fictional story based on World War I on the Western Front. It follows 19-year-old Robert Ross’ life as an officer in the Canadian army. The novel also speaks of the experiences of Robert’s family throughout the war. The events of the novel include the initiation of Robert Ross into adulthood as he confronts many challenges and hardships throughout the book. The challenges and hardships he faces include: death, love, lots of violence being in the war, and sexuality. Being a young man he also experiences love and relationships with woman for the first time. Some of the examples of the hardship he encounters throughout the novel include his nightmarish experiences in the trenches, the mud and smoke, of chlorine gas, and rotting corpses. He gains many friends throughout the novel, which end up being very tough for him, as he at some point in the novel, loses almost all of them to the deadly warfare. Robert ends up surviving the war but not without being heavily scarred by it. The end of the novel describes how Robert passes away in June of 1922.

Some of the themes presented in this novel include: love and death. An example of love being present in this novel is how Robert loves Barbara and how Barbara’s little sister Juliet also loves Robert. This also brings up another small but evident theme in the novel of jealousy. The theme of death is obvious throughout the entire novel being a World War I book, where eighteen million people died within the span of four bloody years.

For most of the book, a historian researching Robert Ross’s life narrates it. The story is told through the memories of the few living people who knew him, and the historian's reconstructions based on archive materials. The Wars utilizes first, second, and third person narrative, which is very rare in literature. I really enjoyed the narrative of the novel especially when it was told from Robert’s perspective on the war. When the story was told from the other characters perspectives I didn’t like the story as much because it wasn’t as action packed.

Many of the issues raised in the novel pertain to my life in some way or another. Some of the issues raised in the book are love, sexuality, death and violence. All of these issues are related or loosely pertaining to my life. In an adolescents life we are starting to have relationships with females, which relates to Robert, and his experiences with woman. Also on the issue of violence almost everyone experiences some degree of violence daily. In my life almost everyday there is some form of brawl between my brothers. Finally, the issue of death relates to everyone in life. Almost everyone that I know has been affected by someone they know who has died although this is not to the same degree of death that Robert experiences.

This book doesn’t relate to anything we have studied in English thus far, but it directly relates to what we have learned in History class. In History class, we have been studying World War I and some of the specific battles fought in the war. In history, we also learned of the horrors of trench warfare and chlorine gas used by the Germans. We also were told of the number of deaths in the war and how the soldiers lived in extremely harsh conditions.

Anyone would know having read The Wars that it was a fantastic book and that there wouldn’t be much else to make it better. The thing I liked most about this book was the very suspenseful action scenes. An example of this is when Robert’s party is stuck in the mud in a crater and the chlorine gas is creeping in on them. What I would like is if the author, (Timothy Findley) added more of these very exciting action scenes.

Like I said I really enjoyed this book and I have talked to a few of my friends who have read it as well who really loved it. I would recommend it to anyone grade eight and up as the reading level is not particularly high. This book has definitely been the best read of 2008 for me.

One of the rhetorical devices used in the novel is symbolism. One of the symbols in this book is the bird who sings which saves Roberts life. When the German was reaching for his gun to shoot at Robert, the bird sang and convinced the German to let Robert and his remaining party members to go free. This bird symbolizes peace and how in a time of chaos the goodness in people still shows through. “He could have killed them all. Surely that had been his intention. But he’d relented. Why? The bird sang.” (P.131) Symbolism is used to provide meaning to the writing beyond what is actually being described. The plot and action that take place in a story can be thought of as one level, while the symbolism of certain things in the writing act on another level to enhance the story. Another rhetorical device found in this book are similes. The simile I decided to use as an example was during my favourite action scene where Robert and his party are in the crater with the gas closing in on them and Robert finds a way to save everyone’s life. ‘Finally, Bates let go. His muscles gave away like bits of yarn and he fouled himself as he peed.” (P. 125) Similes make literature more vivid and they make the reader feel more connected to the writing, because if you use them well, they will make the writing more interesting and create emotions.