The Wars Robert's struggle
In the book The Wars, by Timothy Findley, asserting maleness is a big deal. Men aren't supposed to do what is feminine. Through the many incidents in the novel, maleness is most emphasized on, reason being of the war in the novel, all these men have to act like "tough guys" because their sensitivity will be discriminated. There are three such incidents in the novel that shows the importance of maleness. The scene with the horse, the whorehouse incident, and the dugout scene. Robert was faced with situations that he had a very hard time in, he had no escape in these situations except to do what he had to do. In chapter one, Robert was put in a place where he had to show his aggressiveness and loyalty. He was in charge of the horses in the hold. One of the horses was injured and had to be shot by him. This was a very hard time for Robert because he never killed an animal by himself, besides the rabbits. He had to stay tough and do what he had to do. The book said "Robert could barely move in his panic but he knew that he had to show his nerve and his ability a
The dugout scene, this was different for Robert and the rest of the soldiers. This was the one time that all the soldiers in the dugout showed their softer, gentler, more sensitive side. Everybody was doing what they wouldn't be doing normally. Maybe it was because of fear, everybody showed their emotions. This scene was like a group of young boys just 'hanging around' this is how Findley described it, "The dugouts, in fact, was rather grand as dugouts go." Everybody there was sharing their interests, the books, the animals, the art, and the trumpet. This scene was a big change for all the soldiers, they started to show their emotions and maleness was not asserted as much anymore. Another episode was in the whorehouse. Every man was expected to have sex but Robert didn't. The prostitute, Ella, was forcing Robert to have sex and the fact that the soldiers where in the whorehouse was impelling enough. Robert didn't want to do this, but the hooker forced him. There was so much pressure on Robert: the thought of all the other soldiers having sex in the house an
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 725
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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