Insanity Strikes

War, it changes people. When one thinks of war, images of battle, blood, and death appear as the main focus in one’s mind, but the aspect of what war does to a person psychologically is sheltered by these outer pigments. Although war is based on these gory images of conflict, The Wars, by Timothy Findley shows the aspect that the chaos of war really affects the mentality of a soldier’s state of mind. War has a definite effect on the mentality of a soldier, much so that many soldiers result in insanity during, or after leave of combat. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is the term where after a traumatic event, such as war, soldiers are still thriving a battle inside of them which leads to insanity of the mind. Insanity by definition is the mental illness or derangement of one’s mind caused from an incident of stress and anxiety. Timothy Findley does not only portray the physical aspects of war on a soldier, but as well the mental aspects in the novel. Findley, through the use of the character Robert Ross, portrays the effects on the mind from the chaos of war, from which Robert has a change in mindset from his time of enrollment to his act of leave and comes back a different man. Throughout the book Robert is faced with many difficult times, which in the essence, changes him from who he once was to a soldier filled with insanity. The implements of war have changed Roberts’s state of mind and are focused on primarily throughout the novel. Timothy Findley portrays the effects on the mentality of a soldier’s state of mind to the point of insanity through the chaos of war in his bestselling novel, The Wars. Findley conveys this theme through the use of character development, foreshadowing, and imagery which will be focused on in this next segment of blogs through quotes and analysis of Robert and his employment in the war.

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