The Dark Truth behind an Independent Canada The Great War was a long fought battle, in which Canada’s victories are permanently engraved in world’s history. It marks the birth of the nation’s freedom, and yet, soldiers lived and breathed the air of bloodshed. Mothers wept at the loved ones lost to the hands of war at the home front, and many were left to suffer in the aftermaths of the battle. Although the Great War serves as a significant milestone to Canada’s newfound independence, the prices paid in regards World War One was not worth the country’s victories. When an undefeated Canada arose out of the rubble of the war, it is no longer seen as one under Britain’s control, but rather a nation in itself. The successes led …show more content…
Not only were they physically and psychologically damaged, their new lives in the trenches were horrific, and after the war, veterans returned home unemployed. To begin with, the battle had put so much stress on those fighting in the war; many were not able to return to who they once were. Wounds were battle scars that the soldiers forever carried, and many who could no longer handle the memories of warfare broke down and were taken over by shell shock. William Halse Rivers, a neurologist who treated officers during World War One, states, “I hope to show that many of the most distressing symptoms from which the subject of war neurosis suffer, are not necessarily the result of the strain and shock to which they have been exposed, but are also due to an attempt to banish the mind distressing memories of warfare.” Shell shock and other damages were the results of the battle. The lives of others were traded for Canada’s successes, hence why the victories of the war were not worth the prices paid. Furthermore, the war had negatively impacted soldiers by forcing them to survive under inhumane conditions. Perhaps the best way of describing the trenches is through a small entry from soldier Patrick Eccles’ diary, in which he writes about the horrors of life at