‘In riding a horse, we borrow freedom:’ An Essay of the characterization of Robert Ross In The Wars, Timothy Findley uses personification of the horse to make a mirror reflection of Robert Ross character and self-perception. This is the reason why the horse is one of the main motifs of the novel. In this essay, arguments will be use from Timothy Findley’s novel and Diana Bryndon’s scholarly article “It could not be told: ‘Making Meaning in Timothy Fidnley’s The Wars”, to demonstrate that Robert Ross was kind, noble, perceptive and in some way domesticated as a horse. In the beginning of the story, Robert Ross has always been associated with animals and specially horses. In the prologue, the first sentences are talking about a horse beside a dog. When the narrator says “she was standing on the middle of the railroad tracks” (Findley 1), the use of “she” except of “It”, already tell us that the narrator is treating the animal as an equal to the human being. When “behind [the horse], a warehouse filled with medical supplies had just caught …show more content…
A motif is define as “A distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition” () and horses are always part of the history of Robert and make part of the climax. For start, horses make part of the accident of her sister and how Findley says “children, dogs and horses” makes a symbolic meaning of the innocence of these three creatures and how Robert had this character and he lost this when he has to kill them. Then when he enlists and he prefers being part of the animals and so on. The main conflict that causes the two deaths of the officers is just because Robert denies killing the horses because he can’t kill something like himself and how he denies, when he has the option, to assisted suicide shows his position of perseverance. The point is horses are everywhere to make the reader understand a little bit more about Robert