The Essence of Living

Robert, being a soldier, fought for his life and freedom every single day of combat. Robert cherished his life, even in the hardest of times. He has been through so much in his time of enrollment in the war, experiencing conditions fit for the dead, death of many of his friends and family, and images embedded within his mind that no person should ever witness. And through all this pain and suffering, Robert struggled, but managed to survive to see a better day. Life, the essentials of life, and all things living became a delicacy to Robert, much so that he saved a carnivorous rat in the trenches explained in the next quote.

“In another hole there was a rat that was alive but trapped because of the waterlogged condition of earth that kept collapsing every time it tried to ascend the wall. Robert struck a match and caught the rat by the tail. It squealed as he lifted it over the edge and set it free. Robert wondered afterwards if setting the rat free had been a favour- but in the moment that he did it he was thinking: here is someone still alive. And the word alive was amazing.” (Findley 114)

Robert was so amazed to see life in such a dreadful place in the trenches that he felt that he had to save this existence of life. Since he was surrounded by so much death, this little bit of life thrived him forward to survive. This act of life thrust him to live through the war and cherish all the time that he was alive. Robert’s will to live shone at a time where he was offered a way out of life because he was badly injured at a hospital explained in this next quote.

“But that night- surrounded by all that dark- and all those men in pain- and the trains kept bringing us more and more and more- and the war was never, never, never going to end-that night, I thought: I am ashamed to be alive. I am ashamed of life. And I wanted to offer some way out of life- I wanted grace for Robert Ross. (…) –and I said: ‘I will help you, if you want me to.’ And I knew he understood-because he said: ‘Not yet.’ Not yet. Do you see? He might have said “No.” He might’ve said ‘never.’ He might have said “Yes.” But he said “not yet.” There, in those two words, in a nutshell- you have the essence of Robert Ross. And perhaps the essence of what it is to be alive.(Findley 194-195)

This quote proves to the reader that Robert had what it takes to live from all the suffering the war put upon him. as the last sentence of the quote said, this is what it means to be alive. After all the things Robert had been through, he still wanted to fight for his life. This shows that the war changes people, but it also shows that the war teaches one about the essence of life and to cherish what you can live for. In that, it shows the essence of life.