So Far... Main Events

There are many key events that have occurred so far in the first 18 chapters. I thought they were pretty important to share by which they have drastically changed the novel and the outlook of Robert Ross in his home life and in the war. Here is an update of main concepts in the novel so far:

·       There is defined character development of Robert Ross and his ties with his family. Robert is portrayed as a gentle, loving, caring person in these first dozen chapters. He is very loving for his disabled sister Rowena, who has hydrocephalics as well as for the rest of his family. I will touch on later in a blog about Roberts’s relationship with his mother.

·        “She died on the Monday, never regaining consciousness” (Findley 17) This quote refers to the death of Rowena. She was ten at the time and playing with her beloved rabbits on the concrete floor of the barn. Robert’s little brother, Stuart, was supposed to be watching her when she fell out of her wheelchair and later on died. Robert felt guilty of the whole thing and blamed himself for not being there to catch her in her final minutes. Robert was crushed and couldn’t get over the death in their family for a long time.

·        Robert ended up joining the army on April 2^nd, 1915. The main reasons why he joined were because he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his family in the army, as well as because of the death of Rowena. The major reason why he admitted to the army was to escape from his mother and show his dominance and significance of that point. Again, I will touch on this later on in another blog in more depth about the relationships of Robert and his mother and how Mrs. Ross basically thrived Robert to join the army without even saying goodbye.



Keep in touch for more posts on the way
 of the intriguing book “The Wars”

·        While in the army so far, Robert has not done anything too significant in the portrayal of “war” but has connected with animals throughout the entire novel so far. There are many incidences that deal with animals and Robert in the book and foreshadows that there is going to be many more times where animals come into play in this novel. There are at least 5 times where I can give you examples of animals bonding to Robert so far and I think there will only be more examples on the way.

The novel is turning out to be a great read so far. I would have thought it would be more about war, but realistically, so far I have only learned about Robert and his family and his admittance into the army. I’m sure there will be more about war later on it the next couple parts of the book, and I can not wait.