The ability to possess strength is built on by a continual commitment to personal values. Individuals who are tenacious and who are willing to have faith in their beliefs are capable of being extremely empathetic and have the ability to identify and connect with others. Strength and empathy work hand in hand to create a strong sense of resilience in the face of conflict. Individuals who are able to act in a resilient manner for their personal values live balanced lives and are successful in upholding personal goals. Throughout Timothy Findley’s novel The Wars, the power of empathy is demonstrated by Robert Ross; an extremely compassionate and caring young man.
Young Henry Castleman woke before dawn, dressed and dawned his drum. As the 13 year old assistant drummer, he was required to assemble for the morning reveille, with Robert Averil, the 18 year old drummer and the fifers. A few tents over Francis Ullman would have heard the drumming and movement as he had done for the past 4 years. He got up, dressed in his Johnson’s Greens, grabbed his rifle and joined his fellow privates of Company 8, Captain Richard Duncan’s crew of 50 men and boys.
In “A Revolutionary People at War”, Charles Royster has developed a complex and in-depth thesis regarding the American Revolution. The book dives into the minds of the American people as it conveys the American character displayed throughout the Revolution. His book is multi-faceted, focusing on a number of themes that are beautifully intertwined. He discusses the prevailing American character during the American Revolution. The book studies the ideals of the American people during the revolution and how those ideals impacted the way the Continental Army was organized and how the Revolution was fought.
It is sometimes difficult for individuals to settle the discrepancy between truth and illusion, and consequently they drive others away, by shutting down. Mrs. Ross, in The Wars by Timothy Findley, is seen as brittle while she is attending church, and cannot deal with the cruel reality of the war and therefore segregates herself from the truth by blacking it out. As a result, she loses her eyesight, and never gets to solve the clash between her awareness of reality and the actuality of the world. She hides behind a veil, and her glasses to distance herself from reality. Mrs. Davenport has to wheel her around in Rowena’s chair to keep her awake, so she doesn’t harbour up subconscious feeling within her dreams, which she is unable to deal with.
The majority of people during the American Revolution fought for liberty without realizing the actual cost and brutal reality of war. In the novel My Brother Sam is Dead, the Meeker family consisting of a Father name Life, a Mother named Susannah, a rebellious teen named Sam, and a conflicted teen named Tim, journey through the life of colonists owning a tavern during the Revolutionary War. Sam departs from his family to fight alongside the Patriots going against his Father, a Tory. War brings a lot of terrible things, but some examples are families splitting, clash of generation, and an overall theme of principle vs reality. The soldiers who fought in the war thought they were fighting for liberty, when really they caused havoc and awfulness.
Responsibility often comes with the connotations of burden and sacrifice and most of the time, this is true. In The Wars, by Timothy Findley, the concept of responsibility is demonstrated in the character of Mrs. Ross whose duties as a wife and a mother may be viewed as cold, cruel, and purposefully isolating; the complete opposite of the archetype of a compassionate mother figure. However, like each unique individual in society, the way one responds and takes responsibility varies infinitely; Mrs. Ross attempts to dissociate from society when she feels she has not fulfilled her duties and responsibilities. However, her empathetic nature prevents her from completely isolating herself from all sentiment. Rather, she subconsciously internalizes the welfare and hardships faced by others while sacrificing her own well-being.
In this time frame, heroes, cowards, and casualties categorize men. Inman, the male protagonist of the novel, encounters men fit and unfit for the masculine roles expected by society. Due to the vast amount of soldier casualties, men were required to enlist in the war in 1863. As a result, some headed
Over time, the thought patterns of many individuals mould to believe only one perception of what is morally acceptable— a perception that is completely faulty. The ideology of the male body and demeanor is only one of the many societal norms constructed by the media, and it alone can result in mental health fatalities, mass violence, or the mere elimination of self-identity whilst attempting to meet the ever-changing ideals of masculinity. The continuous and stereotypical depiction of masculinity in the media has idealized invulnerability, toughness and physical strength as the sole qualities of a ‘true man’. As a result, the complexity of masculinity is flattened, and immense pressures are placed on individuals to meet requirements that are entirely faulty. According to Katz, cultures, topics, and even genders are not one-dimensional; in order to fully comprehend the meaning the entirety of something, one must look at more than its representation in the media.
¬¬¬¬¬The Wars Essay The concept of resilience is often described as being able to recover from difficult experiences or pasts, where one’s resilience could be impacted by drastic changes that occur in their lives. It is something that guides one’s decisions and often defines their morals and what individuals perceive to be right or wrong; depending on the situation they are encountering. Resilience is highly dependent on the thought of empathy, where the resilience of people who have experienced empathy will be different from others who haven’t. How individuals deal with these differences determines one’s level of empathy and also impacts their resilience.
The general argument made by David Herbert Donald in Why the War Came: The Sectional Struggle over Slavery in the Territories is that the issue of slavery in the national territories started the Civil War. More specifically, Donald argues that the Kansas-Nebraska Act, crafted by Stephen A. Douglas, revived the issue of slavery in the territories and divided the nation into hostile sections which turned the great forces that once cement American unity into a tool that further divided the nation. Donald points out that North detested slavery to the conception of slavery as being un-American and was the main reason why the South was lagging behind. In order to abolish slavery, the North, who held the majority in the national government, acted on the regulation of national territories. The national territories were one of the few areas that the North could act against slavery since they did not have power over slavery within the states it existed.
A Psychoanalysis on The Wars In human history, war has greatly affected the lives of people in an extremely detrimental way which can be understood in Timothy Findley’s novel The Wars through a psychoanalytic approach in character development and their deterioration; the readers are able to identify the loss of innocence intertwined between characters, the search for self-identity in the symbolic and metaphorical aspect, as well as the essence of life. Those that are not able to overcome these mental challenges may develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or Rape trauma Syndrome, and sadly, some resort to suicide as the last option to escape their insecurities. However, soldiers are not the only ones affected by war; family members also face
American Women during World War 2 had many responsibilities at war, work, and home. But they did not have many equal rights compared to the rest of the society. The women’s rights and responsibilities topic is very interesting. One is understanding and knowing the history about the responsibilities women had to do and how hard working they were. This topic is very important because there was a big change in women’s rights and responsibilities during World War 2.
Soldiers were not viewed as brave men risking their lives, and the war was seen as an unnecessary event. This type of mentality is seen in the novel with the perceptions of the soldiers. The narrator expresses the view of the time period when he states, “They were soldiers’ coats. Billy was the only one who had a coat from a dead civilian” (82). The meaning behind this is very crucial because it establishes a definite division between soldiers and civilians.
War, something that sounds so cliché yet endeavours a greater meaning; a meaning of finding your true self within yourself, and seeing your natural, brave or mediocre side. The concept of bravery and heroic men is often the label associated with war; however, in Timothy Findley’s The Wars, it is in fact the exact opposite. The Wars is an anachronistic example of what one goes through both physically and mentally. Findley accurately portrays the protagonist, Robert Ross, as a naïve nineteen year old who wishes to escape his excruciating feelings of reality for being held accountable for Rowena’s death by enlisting into war, as well as to adhere to societal norms. Robert is an incompetent young boy that achieves most of his knowledge of war from
Literary Analysis of War of the Worlds “The struggle you’re in today is developing the strength you need tomorrow”-Robert Tew. War of the Worlds, based on the novel by H.G. Wells, is about a dockworker, Ray Ferrier who has a weak relationship with his two kids, Robbie and Rachel. After Ray’s ex-wife drops Robbie and Rachel off at Ray’s house, they thought it was going to be a normal tension-filled weekend, but after their electricity goes out and lighting strikes in the same spot, they think otherwise. After a while, a big alien-like creature called a Martian comes out of the ground and kills everyone in its sight. This creates fear amongst the residents in the city and they evacuate as fast as possible.
