Character Development (End of War)

Close to the end of war, the reader sees the true chaos of war in bloom and the insanity of a soldiers mind revealed. Until now, Robert has been faced with many deaths, war related and not, and has just recently been introduced to the full potential of a battle in progress. The battle that sent Robert into full fletched insanity was one of Britain’s last pushes against the Germans. A do or die operation for the Allies. Robert was in charge of delivering convoys to the front lines when they were ambushed with aerial attacks. Robert had recently been deployed with a fresh supply of horses and mules, which were becoming bomb shell fodder. Robert decided that the crucial objective would be to save the horses; mostly importantly because they would need them half an hour later after the bombing ebbed. Robert’s upper rank, Captain Leather, forbid him to flee to safety with the horses for the reason of looking cowardly in battle. Robert disputed with his Captain and ultimately chose to go against his captain’s words to save the horses. It ended up not working as planned because at the split second of freeing the horses, a bomb blew up on cue as the horses ran to safety, which ended up killing or injuring the animals explained in the next passage. Robert emitted his true insanity through his actions as,

“Captain Leather rose to his knees and began to struggle to his feet. Robert shot him between the eyes. It took him half-an-hour to kill the mules and horses. Then he tore the lapels from his uniform and left the battlefield.” (Findley 184)

Apologies for such a horrific scene,
but this is the act of what Robert
had to deal with at end of novel,
which made him snap.

Robert went against his Captains words to try to get the horses to safety and was so narrow-minded in this objective that he was uncontrollable with his actions. He ended up killing his Captain in the process of saving the animals in which they actually ended up dying anyways. He accomplished nothing and showed his true colours of insanity. War does many things to soldiers, not only physically, but more importantly, mentally. In this incident, there is controversy over the fact that Robert was displaying his love for animals by trying to save all these horses and mules. The fact that Robert was trying to save the animals shows his sign of morals being displayed, but the fact is that Robert went against his Captains words, and followed through with trying to save these creatures. His Captain bluntly said for Robert to stop from any further progression with the animals, but Robert went against his word and proceeded anyways. That disobedience shows that Robert went mentally insane.

Using Robert’s experience throughout the war, it shows that the war can change a person from being such a sensitive and passionate man, to an overpowering maniac. Using Robert’s love of animals and how he has changed from the war and killed hundreds of animals in the end of the book, compared to not even being able to kill a few rabbits before he enrolled, shows that the war had an ultimate effect on Robert’s state of mind. Many soldiers in the war end up going insane in their lifetime as Robert did and made poor decisions based on their insanity. Showing how Robert’s state of mind progressively altered from the beginning of the book, to during the war is a prime example of how the chaos of war affects the mentality of a soldier’s state of mind. By showing the character development of Robert Ross in the novel, Findley is able to convey the theme of insanity through a soldier’s mind that is influenced by the chaos of war.