Imagery (Mind)

Moving on to final piece of evidence, this next quote deals with the mental aspect of imagery with the question, what if? Robert deals with many deaths in the war and it shows that it affects him mentally. To have the thought that at any time a soldier in the war could be killed is an awful scenario to think about. As awful as it may seem, soldiers must be prepared for death, and just the thought that each day could be ones last, is enough to make a person go insane.

“The back of his neck was like a board- waiting for the shot that would kill him. Everyone said you didn’t hear that shot. They said if it got you it was silent. How the hell did anyone alive know that?” (Findley 120)

To have that thought that at any moment a bullet could end your life, is a scenario Robert endured day after day, not knowing if it was going to be his last. To picture the situation and the circumstances behind that one stray bullet in one’s mind, day after day, reenactment after another of the last day of one’s life. All of these conditions swirling in a soldiers mind are enough for anyone to go mad. This quotes context is not so much of imagery within the text, but imagery that is developed in the mind from the thought of it happening. Findley used the best method of imagery in this passage, which is making the reader analyze the text and picturing the affects of what the text is conveying. This is the most powerful use of imagery without even using imagery within the passage. The imagery developed in a soldier’s mind of this situation is partially the reason for insanity of a soldier and it is not just thinking of it once because it is placed in a novel like the reader, but because soldiers deal with this unknown scarcity of death each and every day the war thrives. That is why this quote is so powerful to the imagery aspect of the novel.

Findley’s intense use of imagery helps the reader understand what soldiers in the war had to deal with and had to put up with on a daily basis. These war ridden scenes and the mental aspect of imagery within one’s mind, has an effect on the mind of soldiers to the point of insanity.