Map of WWI in 1918

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This is a map of the battles and conflicts in WWI, in which Robert is encountering. Robert is engaged in the Battle of Ypres, located in Belgium at the top of the red line on the map. The red line indicates where the trench warfare took place and the furthest advancement of the German Army. This is a nice visual of WWI that I thought was important to share to go even further into the setting of the novel and where the actual setting of WWI took place.

Stay tuned for another blog "Canada's Involvement in WWI" where I will further investigate into the battles of WWI to fully understand the hardships that Robert had to endure in this war.

Developing Themes

There are some major themes that are in the developing stages so far in the novel. A few that I noticed were Abandonment, Isolation, and Death. These three themes similarly coincide with another in the plot, in which they deal with the same outlook in The Wars. Abandonment and Isolation are developing in part 2 of the novel where the basis of war is starting to unfold against the Germans in France.

“The fog was full of noises. They were ill defined and had no perimeter. Distance had been swallowed whole” (Findley 73)

In this particular instance, Robert was in charge of his own convoy and had leaded them into the wrong direction, in which they were technically lost. They were in the centre of the hind end of the battlefield. The whole convoy had an urgency of scarcity of the unknown. As the fog filled in the setting, their whole perception of distance and space was lost. There was a tendency of isolation occurring in the fog, as to they have been left behind. Luckily it was only for a short while, since Robert navigated the convoy to the trenches. I will be watching this theme as I read along further into the novel because I have a prediction where along the line, isolation and abandonment may play a key role in Robert’s time in the war.

The use of Fog in this instance, really portrays the
theme of isolation in the quote above.

Another theme that is bluntly obvious in the novel is the theme of death. Death has surrounded a majority of the book and has created many tensions and decisions because of it. Death is evidently a key role in The Wars knowing that it is revolved much so around Robert. Many of Robert’s loved ones have died so far into the book and the war has barely commenced. Rowena, Harris, and the relationship with his mother are just naming a few. Death is greatly revolved around this book in the sense of insanity may play a role because of death later on in the novel. Rowena passed away early in the book, which thrived Robert to join the army. In the war, Robert’s best friend, Harris, contracted pneumonia and ended up dying in the hospital. He then was involved in the scattering of the ashes of Harris in the Greenwich River. Robert has been through so much death in the war so far with the death of his friends, family, and war colleagues, not to mention all of the animal slaughtering. Death plays a crucial role in the novel so far, basing that off the fact that so much death has occurred in such a short time span. My predictions are that the theme of death is going to be a part of the novel throughout the entire war, which is going to lead to many complications and other theme developments later on as I read further into the adventures of Robert Ross in WWI.

Part 2 Summary



Death plays a crutial role in The Wars,
whether it be a person or an animal. There
are already so many instances
of death in this book so far.

Middle of the war. France. During the battle of Ypres. Robert is now in charge of his own convoy whose objective is to reach the trench main front. Robert describes the war scene as mud, death, and horrible sights. On route to the front line, Robert finds himself almost drowning in mud (one of his biggest fears), after misleading his convoy out onto a dike of mud. After solely saving himself, his convoy eventually makes it to the dugout where Robert finds Devlin, Bonnycastle, and a visitor named Rodwell. Rodwell is a different type of man who has a collection of injured animals that he cares for. He has birds, toads, rabbits, and even a hedgehog. The animals agonizingly reminded Robert of Rowena and the rabbits who she once cared for. Robert began to share a respect for Rodwell for the fact of his care of animals.

This is a wooden cremation urn,
in which Robert recieved after the
death of Harris. Death plays an important
role in this book and an urn is a great
symbolic meaning for death.

During Robert’s time of leave from the war, he went to visit Harris everyday in the hospital. Harris contracted bronchitis and was deathly ill. Harris ended up passing away days before Robert was scheduled back to France. Robert insisted for a proper burial of his friend, but discovered there after that he was cremated. There was a transcript of Lady Juliet d’Orsey that explained how Robert, Taffler and d’Orsey spread Harris’ ashes into the Greenwich River. The next best place besides the sea, which actually meant something to Harris.

Part two ends with the second half of the battle beginning. A line of land mines were set off near Robert’s dugout, followed by infamous gun shots in the distance.

“This was the beginning of the second phase of a battle the Canadians had thought was already over. But it was to rage for five more days. In it 30 000 men would die and not an inch of ground would be won.” (Findley 106)

This was seriously how pointless this war was. Hundreds of thousands of men died in this war for almost no gain or purpose. Stay tuned for a later blog about Canada’s involvement in WWI, which will elaborate on one of most senseless wars in history, WWI.

Part 1 Summary

The first part of this novel introduces the background of Robert and his family. Character development is key in this part of the storyline. After the death of Robert’s sister, Rowena, Robert felt guilty that he could not have stopped the tragic event from happening. He enlisted into the Canadian Armed Forces after Mrs. Ross and he mauled over a feud over the death in their family. Robert had a great relationship with Rowena, acting like her guardian. When she died, Robert felt remorsefully guilty because he was not there to stop her from falling out of her wheelchair. Instead, Robert was confined to his room where he was making love to his pillows. Rowena cared for over 10 rabbits before she passed away, and since no one else was responsible for them Mrs. Ross wanted Robert to kill the defenseless animals, in which he refused to do. Robert’s mother then resulted in calling Teddy Budge, a man with no remorse, to proceed with the assassination of the rabbits. In an attempt to save the rabbits, Robert was beaten by Teddy Budge and the slaughter was completed.

Robert joined the army. In training camp, Robert met a war hero, Eugene Taffler, while searching for lost horses. Taffler was a very large, strong man who was shattering bottles with rocks, while his dog sat alongside him.

A 6-shooter gun. Similar to the one Robert
owns and used to put the horse out of its misery

The book then describes Robert’s life on a boat, the S.S. Massanabie, on route to England. Illness and disease was airbourne throughout the voyage. Privacy and space was hard to come by in this boat. Robert was assigned to care for horses in the infirmary during the trip. On the voyage, Robert made his closest friend that he would ever in the army. His name was Harris and he contracted a bad case of pneumonia, which later got him reassigned to the hospital in England. One night, during a storm, one of the horses broke their leg and Robert was commanded to put it out of its misery. Robert had to go against his morals and love of animals to put the horse out of its pain. He struggled. It took Robert six shots to finally put the beast to rest, which scarred him mentally and emotionally and the war hasn’t even begun for Robert.

Characters in The Wars

Robert Ross:  Robert is the protagonist of the novel. He is currently 19 years of age when he enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1916 in WWI. He is a very honourable and passionate man, who most say is also handsome. Early in the novel, Robert lost his dear older sister, Rowena, which resulted in Robert feeling guilty and pushed him forward to join the army. Robert shows traits of weakness when he could not slaughter Rowena’s rabbits and also when Robert could barely kill an injured horse. Robert just wasn’t a killer and had a respect for animals of all kinds. Robert has a good personality filled with trust, care, and determination.

Rowena Ross: Rowena was Robert’s older sister. She died at the age of 25 when she fell out of her wheelchair in their barn. She was suffering with a condition of hydrocephalic, water in the brain at birth. Rowena was an adult but because of her condition acted as more of a child than anything. Robert treated himself as he was a guardian of Rowena and when she died, he felt guilt and remorse for not being there to prevent her death. She cared for over ten rabbits that were slaughtered thereafter her death, under no consent of Robert.

Mr. Ross: Thomas Ross is the father of Robert and his siblings. He was the more loving parent in the family and was less strict on his children that Mrs Ross was. He tried to help out Robert as much as he could when he enrolled in the army, sending him clothing, boots, and even a COLT 6-shooter.

Mrs. Ross: Margaret Ross is the mother to Robert and his siblings. She has problems with relationships with the people in her family. As stated in an earlier blog, she and Robert have a broken relationship that really seizes to exist. The reasoning to this relationship is stated in an earlier post called “Mother/Son Relationships”. Mrs Ross is an alcoholic and it really shoed after the death of Rowena. She has a hard time sustain relationships and is a very strict, unloving parent.

Stuart Ross: Brother of Robert. Stuart was held responsible for the death of Rowena because he was not watching her when she fell out of her wheelchair.

Peggy Ross: Robert’s little sister, at a young age.

Teddy Budge: A man with no remorse, hired to slaughter Rowena’s rabbits.

Marian Turner: Marian was a nurse during WWI. She is introduced through transcripts and interviews throughout the book, talking about Robert Ross and the war.

Eugene Taffler: A war hero in the novel. He is introduced in the beginning of the book of having perfect accuracy and strength of a soldier, displaying it by exploding bottles with rocks. He had a relationship with Barbara d’Orsey.

Harris: Harris was one of Robert’s closest companions in the war, meeting in the ship’s barn. Harris was contracted with pneumonia and Robert cared for him in the hospital until his death. After his death, Robert spread his ashes in the Greenwich River.

Lady Juliet d’Orsey: Juliet is introduced in the novel when she gives a transcript of the early years and that she adored Robert at a young age.

Barbara d’Orsey: She is Juliet’s older sister. She went through many men and easily gained and lost love. She seems to have a liking to Robert in the novel so far, because she would always stare at him when she and Taffler went to visit their war friend, Jamie.

Critical Article #3

In this article, Barbara Gabriel accuses Timothy Findley of being fascist and using intertextuality in many of his novels based on history. This article has a  very critical view on Findley’s work and how Findley is trying to prove his nation right though the use of his books. She accuses Findley of using fascism in his novels in the 20^th century and how he links this with a whole structure of domination and masculinity in our culture. She finds that Findley uses the themes of war and history in his novels and through those themes he portrays fascism to the North American society. Gabriel goes on to talk about how Findley has many references throughout his pieces of works that he uses for his own narrations. Gabriel faults him of using intertextual references in his works of which he uses other writings and texts for reference for his own novels. She critiques Findley very much so in this article about being fascist in his works and using other texts for his personal references. It is noted that Findley is credited for his successive fiction novels and that Findley can portray his obsessive concerns within his books without awareness of this from his readers.

Gabriel, Barbara. "Situated history and the novels of Timothy Findley." Essays on Canadian Writing. 01 Apr. 1999: 122. eLibrary. Web. 07 Oct. 2011.

http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/curriculumca/do/document?set=search&dictionaryClick=&secondaryNav=&groupid=1&requestid=lib_canada&resultid=1&edition=&ts=5395D1296480ED5749E365362F4003EE_1318626787684&start=1&publicationId=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib%3Bdocument%3B29526329

Critical Article #2

Timothy Findley structured his novel The Wars with a photographic technique which is a very complex style of writing to accomplish for an author. The style of his photo-narration seems as if the reader is within these moments of history through his visual structure and imagery of the novel and setting. Findley does an outstanding job of telling the novel in such a way that the reader feels a part of the events. He describes the setting and the atmosphere as you were the narrator looking down on these events that occurred. As touched on by Hulcoop, photography is what revolves the storyline around in the book. Hulcoop mentioned this type of style of writing, but didn’t really grasp the full concept of photography as the centerpiece of which this article will go in depth about.

Findley's style of writing symbolizes this picture,
showing that his words are so intensely descriptive,
it's like you are looking at a photograph.
(In this case a window into his story)

The photographic style and the use of a narrator that Findley uses in this book has the most impact on the reader and their focus on not only the events and setting of the novel, but on Robert Ross himself and his personality traits and the essence of his mind. David Williams then elaborates on Findley’s styles of writings and how the images display history throughout time. He uses photographic images to display and to create this setting in the book. Photographic imagery set up a very good establishment of distance and time throughout the book in Robert’s abandonment and the tension between the distances from the public to his isolation in the war. Williams then discusses how photography compares to the themes of the book and how they aid the development of these themes. Findley’s imagery really puts an emphasis on the themes of abandonment, death, and danger of war throughout the novel. The imagery of being alone and of the possibility of death and portraying death in the war sticks out because of this technique.

“Although film has likely done more than still-photography to produce shock in its "techniques of rapid cutting, multiple camera angles, [and] instantaneous shifts in time and place," Benjamin argues in On Some Motifs in Baudelaire," "the 'snapping' of the photographer has had the greatest consequences. A touch of the finger now sufficed to fix an event for an unlimited period of time.” (Williams)

This quote sums up the whole argument of this article. Through the use of photographic imagery in Findley’s works, he can speak out to the reader and really take their focus into the writing and into the setting of the story. He creates a sort of relationship with his words of imagery to get a feel for being in the book and witnessing the events first hand. Because Findley is so great at what he can do with these different styles, this is why he is noted for being one of the best in the business.

Williams, David. "A Force of Interruption: The Photography of History in Timothy Findle'ys The Wars."Issue 194 Autumn 2007. pp.54. eLibrary. Database. 6 Oct 2011.

http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/curriculumca/do/document?set=literature&groupid=3&requestid=literature&resultid=1&urn=urn%3Aproquest%3AUS%3BCH%3Bpqllit_crit_lib%3Bcriticism%3B1412128791%3B