Imagery (Landscape)

Imagery is a very powerful asset in The Wars. Timothy Findley has a talent with his intense usage of imagery throughout the novel. His powerful imagery is able to show the chaos of war and how it affects a soldier’s mind. With his gift, Findley is able to make it seem as though the reader is looking at a photograph through his description of words. It is because of this talent that makes his novel world renowned in comparison to other history novels.

The first instant of imagery in the novel is when Robert has travelled to Magadalene Wood, where he notices the landscape of the area portrayed as,

“The country he passed through now was beautiful and utterly peaceful. The guns had not yet started their pounding, but even when they did they were so far away they seemed to be in another world. The trees were just in the process of shedding their blossoms and the roadside was littered with white and pink petals. The air was filled with the sweet, sad smell of pollen and the bees had begun to buzz. (…) The only signs of war were the ruts in the road. (…) he passed a number of deserted buildings. It was suddenly an empty landscape. Where had all the people gone? Robert felt abandoned. He had lost his pistol.” (Findley 167)

War ridden Landscape

This landscape that Robert once knew has changed a war ridden town of abandonment and emptiness. From a town of such beauty and happiness to a town of sorrow and destruction. The war changes many things throughout its time, to the landscape, to soldiers, to the whole world in most cases. For the most part I have been discussing how the war affects a soldier, but the war affects many other things like the landscape in this case. The whole area of which the war is taking place suffers greatly. It affects the citizens that live here and more importantly the soldiers that have to put up with this tolerance. Soldiers have seen these towns before and what they used to look like, compared to what has happened to them after war has taken its toll there. This greatly affects the mentality of a soldier to see this happen and the destruction that occurs. Although it affects the towns that war has taken over, it affects the soldiers as well to see this happening everywhere they go. Seeing devastating occurrences like these on a day to day basis affects the soldiers much so that many of them go into a state of depression or insanity.