Psychological Effects Of War In The Wars By Timothy Findley

What they do not look at: “Psychological effect of the war” War is something that has much more than physical effects. It is a burden on those involved on and off the battlefield. Being part of a war can affect you emotionally, mentally and physically. Even though soldiers are fighting for “just causes” was is an all-around negative event. In Timothy Findley’s novel, The Wars, the character of Robert Ross undergoes a psychological downfall through the trauma of the war. Through the lives of the novels characters, Timothy Findley highlights the negative psychological progression, which is a direct result of the chaos in the war. In the novel The Wars, Timothy Findley demonstrates the psychological effect through the character of Robert Ross.

Robert had entered the war with a lack of knowledge about all the violence and death that actually occurs, “he had never aimed a gun at anything” (Findley, 24) let alone kill someone. After the death of his sister Rowena, his mother insists that her “rabbits [have] to die and Robert [has] to do it” (18). Roberts failure to not being able to kill the rabbits, allowed Findley to portray how passionate Robert is towards living things. During the war, Robert is sent to France on the S.S Massanable where he takes responsibilities for tending to the horses. After one of the horses breaks its legs, Robert is instructed to kill it and struggles to do so. When Robert finally kills the horse, “Sergeant-Major [had] pulled him away, the gun went right on

Rodwell’s character is known for rescuing wounded animals and keeping them in “small wire cages “(94) under his bed, as well as for “illustrating children books” (99). Rodwell has reached his mental resilience after he was “assigned to a company who’d been in the trenches all through the fire storms without being relieved [and the soldiers had] forced him to watch the killing of a cat” (150). After witnessing this torture, Rodwell took his own life. Findley demonstrates how the war creates a psychosis effect on the soldiers during the war. Levitt is described as a book lover, especially with writings of the war by Clausewitz’s. Levitt’s breaking point is witnessed after the folding of the trench, Levitt “was suffering from shock” (123) and was trying his “best to clean things up and get [the] place [back] in order” (124). Levitt’s mental capacity during this situation was impacted to make the decision of trying to clean up the trench instead of helping the other soldiers in the trench with him. Eugene Taffler was a decorated war hero who is easily willing to kill a man, and is who Robert looks up to as a role model. When Robert discovers Taffler in the whore house having violent sex with the Swede, Findley demonstrated how the violence of the war has impact Taffler outside of the