Use of Foreshadowing (2)

Another use of foreshadowing in the novel is when Robert’s war colleague dies from suicide of insanity of the mind. Robert’s war colleagues died, but this time of a different reason. This man’s name is Rodwell. He is an unthinkable man that shared a love of animals with Robert. He and Robert began to have a liking of each other which made it even worse on Robert’s mental health when he committed suicide. Robert and Rodwell became friends throughout the novel, sharing the same interests of animals and what not. When Rodwell died, it took a great effect on Robert, seeing one of his best friends committing suicide from what they have both endured over the war when the novel explains,

“Word reached Robert Saturday that Rodwell had shot himself. Apparently he’d gone ‘down the line’ and been assigned to a company who’d been in the trenches all through the fire storms without being relieved. Some of them were madmen. (…) Half an hour later, Rodwell wandered into No Man’s Land and put a bullet through his ears.” (Findley 134-135)

Robert had always showed a liking to Rodwell and when he heard the news that he had gone mad and committed suicide, he himself almost went mad. This incident foreshadows the fact that as war becomes crueler on the mind of soldiers, insanity makes its move and starts pouring into the already defenseless heads of these soldiers. This event of insanity foreshadows the emotional climax of Robert and shows emphasis of how a person that is so similar to the protagonist went mad and killed himself. There were many resemblances of Robert and Rodwell, and when Findley conveyed that a person with the same nurture went mentally insane, it gives the effect of foreshadowing that Robert will resemble the same path took by Rodwell.