Charles Yale Harrison’s Generals Die in Bed vs Colin McDougall’s Execution As with any genre, all novels termed ‘war stories’ share certain elements in common. The place and time settings of the novels, obviously, take in at least some aspect of at least one war or conflict. The characters tend to either be soldiers or are at least immediately affected by the military. An ever present sense of doom with punctuated moments of peace is almost a standard of the war novel. Beyond the basic similarities, however, each of these battle books stands apart as an individual. Charles Yale Harrison’s World War I novel, Generals Die in Bed is, in essence, quite different than Colin McDougall’s Execution. Coming years earlier, Generals can almost be seen to hold the wisdom one would expect see in an older sibling, while Execution suffers the growing pains that the younger child inevitably feels. Most war novels center on themes of valor and heroism. Some concentrate on the opposites of these virtues in an attempt to display raw realism. Harrison, right from the beginning of his novel, shows us both. The narrator of this first-person narrative paints a picture of a totally un-heroic bunch of soldiers preparing for debarkation. The drinking and debauchery are followed the next morning by a parade that the suffering soldiers must march through, while the people watch their ‘heroes’ leaving to bravely fight the good fight. While this clearly demarcates the innocent civilians from the savvy soldiers, it also shows the reader that the narrator is going to try to tell the real story. Execution starts with what is seemingly a journal entry, implying that it will be a first person narrative much the same as Ge... ... middle of paper ... ... enough contrasts between them that allow them to stand out as completely individual from one another. Each of these novels, then, is able to both expand upon the other, while being free in its own expression at the same time. Works Cited Harrison, Charles Yale. Generals Die in Bed. Waterdown: Potlatch Publications, 1999. Lenoski, Daniel S. “Morning Glory: Execution and Romance.” American Review of Canadian Studies. Volume 23 (1993): 387 – 406. Mason, Michael A. “Execution: Heroism in a Modern War-Novel.” English Studies in Canada. Volume 5 (1979): 94 - 104. McDougall, Colin. Execution. Toronto: Macmillan, 1958. Thompson, Eric. “Canadian Fiction of the Great War.” Canadian Literature. Volume 91 (1981): 81 – 96. Vance, Jonathan. Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997.
Many times readers lose interest in stories that they feel are not authentic. In addition, readers feel that fictitious novels and stories are for children and lack depth. Tim O’ Brien maintains that keeping readers of fiction entertained is a most daunting task, “The problem with unsuccessful stories is usually simple: they are boring, a consequence of the failure of imagination- to vividly imagine and to vividly render extraordinary human events, or sequences of events, is the hard-lifting, heavy-duty, day-by-day, unending labor of a fiction writer” (Tim O’ Brien 623). Tim O’ Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story” examines the correlation between the real experiences of war and the art of storytelling. In O’Brien’s attempt to bridge the gap between fiction and non-fiction, the narrator of the story uses language and acts of violence that may be offensive to some.
...and wounds soldiers but murdering their spirits. War hurts families and ruins lives. Both stories showed how boys became in terrible situations dealing with war.
The Wars by Timothy Findley is an anti-war novel set during the First World War. The novel follows Robert Ross, a Canadian military officer, as he suffers through the horrors of the war both on and off the battlefield. As the novel progresses, Robert evolves from an innocent young man to a deeply troubled and broken individual. This loss of innocence plays a great role in Robert’s development as a character and is highlighted by his experiences with sex and death, experiences that eventually leads to his downfall.
Therefore through evaluating and comparing each author’s work we will see how each is utilizing this intermingling effect between conflict and innocence to reveal how the horrors of war can affect individuals mentally. To relate how the authors accomplish this effect we will observe how each utilizes specific devices such as scenarios and specific language to engage the reader into viewing a character as more than a construct but rather a multifaceted complex individual that has flaws and mental issues much like many of us.
In the books All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque and The Wars by Timothy Findley, there is clear evidence of the nature of war. With all the efforts of preparation, discipline, and anticipation, false hopes were created for the young individuals, who leave the battlefields with numerous emotional and physical scars. The propaganda and disciplinary training to convince naïve young men to go to battle to fight for their country, the death of their comrades, and the physical breakdown are all part of twentieth century warfare.
War makes you a man; it makes you dead” (O’Brien 76). Any well written novel will intrigue a reader because when an author is able to bend in emotions of a real life event with a fictional standpoint of things, a story has been written.
In both novels, the characters represent certain kinds of individuals in today's society. They encounterjealousy, as well as many other conflicts within themselves, and human nature. Ultimately, these two novels deliver the inner conflicts of our society.
There is a major change in the men in this novel. At first, they are excited to join the army in order to help their country. After they see the truth about war, they learn very important assets of life such as death, destruction, and suffering. These emotions are learned in places like training camp, battles, and hospitals. All the men, dead or alive, obtained knowledge on how to deal with death, which is very important to one’s life.
Jones, Peter G, War and the Novelist: Appraising the American war Novel. University of Missouri Press, 1976. 5-6. Rpt. in Literary Themes for Students, War and Peace. Ed. Anne Marie Hacht. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 449-450. Print.
Unique in style and content, the novel explores the emotions of a young Civil War recruit named Henry Fleming. What is most remarkable about this classic is that the twenty-four-year-old author had never witnessed war in his life before writing this book. Crane's story developed to some degree out of his reading of war stories by Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy and the popular memoirs of Civil War veterans, yet he also deviated from these influences in his depiction of war's horror. Critics have noted that his portrait of war is an intensely psychological one, blending elements of naturalism, impressionism, and symbolism. Indeed, he broke away from his American realist contemporaries, including his mentor William Dean Howells, in his naturalistic treatment of man as an amoral creature in a deterministic world.
War as seen through the eyes of Ambrose Bierce in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge depicts it as truly gritty. The author successfully sends a message of how death is a part of war, and it is not as noble or glorious as one would think it is. Due to popular media, we have this attitude that the protagonist is going to go down in a blaze of glory, and while it may be true for some, it is not like that for everyone. War is rough, dark, and gritty but no one ever wants to talk about those parts of war because it would ruin the fantasy of it.
Timothy Findley Creates a fictional world through his novels, where readers can relate to the situations and characters. The protagonists that Findley creates are often similar and connected to the hardships that they eventually encounter and defeat or that which they are defeated by. Findley takes his readers back in time to the First World War, displaying his knowledge of history and research, where the hardships of a young soldier’s battles internally and externally are brought to the reader’s attention in his historical-fiction novel The Wars. Findley writes about the reality and absurdity of the First World War, and takes the reader’s on a journey through the active reading process to find what is “sane” and “Insane” throughout the duration of the novel. Following the journey of the protagonist, Robert Ross as he enlists in the Canadian Army after the death of his sister Rowena, and undoubtedly is the turning point of the text and ideally where Findley initiates the active reading process, and where the contents placed in the story by Findley, are analyzed and opinionated based on the reader’s perception and subjectivity of truth. Essayist Anne Reynolds writes “ Findley manages, through technical prowess, to combine Hemingway-like choices of clear moment searing horror and truth at the battlefront with scenes depicting the effects of war on the families and lovers of the soldiers.” (Reynolds, 4) According to Reynolds Findley has been able to display the absurdity and affect that not only the First World War has caused but the ludicrousness war in general has caused the families of soldiers, and society as a whole. Using the literary theory of deconstruction many aspects and scenarios in The Wars can be analyzed, as Fin...
...ce, although both writings are interesting in their own ways, the most interesting aspect of both writings together is that they both have a similar plot and theme. It is rare that two
O’Brien, Tim. “How To Tell a True War Story.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2003. p. 420-429.
O’Brien’s unique verisimilitude writing style fills the novel with deep meaning and emotion. Analyzing the novel through a psychological lens only adds to its allure. Understanding why characters act the way they do helps bring this novel to life. The reader begins to empathize with the characters. Every day, the soldiers’ lives hang in the balance. How these soldiers react to life-threatening situations will inspire the reader. Life has an expiration date. Reading about people who are held captive by their minds and who die in the name of war, will inspire the reader to live everyday as if they are currently in the