Through my years of learning English in school, I have read a few novels either for assignments or silent readings. I often read novels engaging within the romantic and depressing moments and acting out characters through their dialogues with different speaking tones. Likewise, in the novel, the Deception of Livvy Higgs written by Donna Morrissey, I am again captured by the distinct and interesting characters and their speaking ways. However, paying little attention to what I can actually learn from this novel. Nevertheless, when I finished reading this book, my mind was filled with new knowledge on various historical events. This novel well illustrates Canada’s state and contribution in the Second World War. The French-English relationships …show more content…
Their relationship draws a small picture to the relationship between the French and English Canadians living in Eastern Canada during the wartime periods. Many of the older generations of French and English settlers hold strong discriminations against the other race. The French-Canadians portray the English-Canadians as selfish people who want the sea and fish for themselves while the opposite thinks the French-Canadians are hooligans who are “traitors to their own flag” and “wouldn’t serve the English flag either”, that they cared nothing of the land, just kept the English people “from settling, from making laws” (p.91-92). Even in school, the youngsters are taught the battle between the British and French over the fish and the Newfoundland shores that has continued for hundreds of years because of their different perspective on the usage of the land and its resources. For instance, Livvy’s father and an Englishman, Darwin, complain that the shoreline to the French is simply a “nursery for seamen” and a “cradle for their sailors” (p.93). He strongly despises French-Canadians with this being one of the reasons. Through these few pages of the novel, an image of the conflict between the French and English in Eastern Canada, especially in Newfoundland, is easily drawn. While this conflict strains the atmosphere in East Canada, the threat the …show more content…
There are ships everywhere, anchored on both sides of the Halifax Harbour with hundreds of men “swarming their decks and hollering over horns and whistles” (p.162). The hilltop is studded with canons and “flapping flags that appear to be saluting the thousands of soldiers roaming the streets” (p.163), who are yelling, cursing or jostling each other as they sing drunkenly. Livvy’s grandmother forbids Livvy from going out of the house because of the confusion in the streets. The air in Halifax is taut with the roar of planes cutting through the skies and the distant but constant boom of cannons, sirens, and ships’ horns moaning from the harbour. Even after the war has ended, the tension still exists. Although the city erupts into joy with thousands of civilians and sailors shouting and cheering and flags unfurling over the windows, there is an “undertow of resentment and scorn that have built up, in sailors and civilians alike, from the four long years of living in cramped, sparse conditions” (p.260) beneath the joyous madness. In the night when the war ends, mobs of sailors, military people, and city folks break into liquor stores and then go on drinking, smashing windows, looting stores, and setting fires. The wars have changed too much on both the soldiers and the civilians’ lives, and have created too much bitterness to be able to be cleared in a short
Paul Gross' 2008 film, Passchendaele blurs the line between fiction and reality in a social commentary on Canadian life during World War One. It is the intent of this review to assess the historical accuracy of the portrayal of anti-German sentiment within the Canadian government in the year of 1917 as well as the racial prejudice experienced by German-Canadians during this time. In particular, this review intends to evaluate the plausibility of the effects of this racial tension on the protagonist, military man Michael Dunne (Paul Gross), his love interest and military nurse, Sarah Mann (Caroline Dhavernas), and her brother, David (Joe Dinicol).
He arrives back at his town, unused to the total absence of shells. He wonders how the populations can live such civil lives when there are such horrors occurring at the front. Sitting in his room, he attempts to recapture his innocence of youth preceding the war. But he is now of a lost generation, he has been estranged from his previous life and war is now the only thing he can believe in. It has ruined him in an irreversible way and has displayed a side of life which causes a childhood to vanish alongside any ambitions subsequent to the war in a civil life. They entered the war as mere children, yet they rapidly become adults. The only ideas as an adult they know are those of war. They have not experienced adulthood before so they cannot imagine what it will be lie when they return. His incompatibility is shown immediately after he arrives at the station of his home town. ”On the platform I look round; I know no one among all the people hurrying to and fro. A red-cross sister offers me something to drink. I turn away, she smiles at me too foolishly, so obsessed with her own importance: "Just look, I am giving a soldier coffee!"—She calls me "Comrade," but I will have none of it.” He is now aware of what she is
The discrimination suffered by the “ethnic Canadians” increased during the war was inflicted by both society and the government. An example of the discrimination suffered by “ethnic Canadians” is Sarah Mann, a Canadian-German living though World War 1. Before the people of the town knew she was of German descent, she lived a normal life. But, that all changed when they found out; they vandalized her house by breaking the windows, painting harsh words in red paint or blood, which is overall person to person discrimination. However, throughout the war, it was not just the Canadian-Germans who suffered from discrimination, all ethnicities either than English-Canadian or French-Canadian. Also, they did not only receive discrimination through vandalism, and other person to person discrimination, “ethnic Canadians” faced discrimination by the Canadian government. The governments’ discrimination was caused by the pressure of frightened public experiencing panic because of the Great War. Therefore, the government took action by passing the Wartime Elections Act and the Wartime Measures Act. The Wartime Elections act meant the “ethnic Canadians” would lose their right to vote. The “ethnic Canadians” would also be put into concentration camps or have to register to the police on a regular basis. The historical significance...
To start off, I’ll be writing about the life of people in British North America and its significance towards unifying Canada, as well as background knowledge of conflicts that existed. Life in British North America was changing at an alarming rate. New technology and services were being introduced such as railways and steamships. Industries such as building, producing and farming were being introduced. This was in part due to the many immigrants from Britain and France who’d settled. This was dreadful for the First Nations as their land had been taken away even more so than before. More resources were needed for the growing crowd so trade agreements were made. As more people came, the First Nations were even more distanced from the Europeans. Meanwhile, the French and the British wanted the other’s culture to be erased from the
Rynard, P. (2001). Ally or colonizer?: The federal state, the cree nation and the james bay agreement. Journal of Canadian Studies, 36(2), 8.
According to conservative conflict theory, society is a struggle for dominance among competing social groups defined by class, race, and gender. Conflict occurs when groups compete over power and resources. (Tepperman, Albanese & Curtis 2012. pg. 167) The dominant group will exploit the minority by creating rules for success in their society, while denying the minority opportunities for such success, thereby ensuring that they continue to monopolize power and privilege. (Crossman.n.d) This paradigm was well presented throughout the film. The European settlers in Canada viewed the natives as obstacles in their quest of expansion by conquering resources and land. They feared that the aboriginal practices and beliefs will disrupt the cohesion of their own society. The Canadian government adopted the method of residential schools for aboriginal children for in an attempt to assimilate the future generations. The children were stripped of their native culture,...
The Red River Colony was changing, but it wasn’t the only one, all of Canada were changing, because in the late 1860s Canada entered a new era and the changes and events that occurred in the Red River was only the beginning of many more conflicts and circumstances to come that would help shape and define this age Canada has entered. Although the Red River Rebellion had ostensibly achieved most of its major objectives, the Metis would soon find themselves at a disadvantage. They would rise yet again for another rebellion called The North-West Rebellion of 1885 to assert their nationality once more.
It was during this time that the first obstacles to the government's progress first surfaced. The Métis people began to fear for their culture, rights and their lands as colonists sta...
Colonists from France came to Canada and settled in Acadia also known as present day east coast colonies during the seventeenth century. The name given to the French colonists from the time of arrival to Canada was the “Acadians”. The Acadians from France continued their formal lifestyle by farming, fishing and maintaining a close family oriented culture in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. The Acadians had created a prosperous agriculture economy up until the late eighteenth century, when there was a colonial struggle in power between the French and the British. British had conquered Port Royal and the Acadians refused to recognize British rule, wanting to keep their religious freedom and not wanting to be obliged to bears arms in the event of war. In this essay I will show that the impact from the England colonial rules led the Acadians to be deported and there they made a decision to settle in the Southern United states. This research essay will discuss why the they settles in the Maritime Provinces, what conflicts arise for in order for the British to exile them and why they chose the Southern United States to settle during the seventeenth and eighteenth century.
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...
Most people are trapped into believing that Canada is a very diverse place to live as it welcomes many cultures, but do not realize what happens to their culture when they have lived in Canada after time. Throughout the stories Simple Recipes by Madeleine Thien and A Short History of Indians in Canada by Thomas King, the authors tell the actions of what is happening in the characters lives to show the stripping of other cultures when they come to Canada. These two stories reveal how difficult it can be to be a person with a different culture existing in Canadian society.
Newfoundland, prior to the early nineteenth century, was a ‘chaotic backwater’ in which law and order were largely unknown. Its economic, political and social interests lied heavily in the cod fishery. The chaotic nature of Newfoundland, given that its society was made up of various European immigrants only added to the struggle they were facing in terms of reform and the establishment of self-government. The people who occupied the region all brought large aspects of European life to Newfoundland, wh...
Lawrence Hill Books, c2009 Bracken, Patrick and Celia Petty (editors). Rethinking the Trauma of War. New York, NY: Save the Children Fund, Free Association Books, Ltd, 1998.
Marilyn Dumont, born in northeastern Alberta in 1955, is a métis writer and educator whose poems have for many years been an inspiration in Canadian literature, giving insight into the struggles of the aboriginal peoples in Canada. Marilyn, in many of her poems, explores the deep feelings of hatred that native peoples feel towards ‘the whites’, otherwise known as the settlers that arrived in the 1600s, or later the Canadian government. These emotions are deep-running, tracing back many years, under which the native peoples have been oppressed physically, culturally, and psychologically to the point where many have given up hope. With her poems, Dumont breaks ties with conventional generalizations through her loud and flamboyant style, ultimately
...rosion occurring throughout the prairies. The town of Ste. Madeleine, populated by a small number of Metis families, was designated to be a pastureland, according to the PFRA. In accordance with the law, any family living in the occupied land would be compensated and relocated assuming they had the necessary land permits and taxes paid. Due to the economic conditions in the 1930’s, very few families located in Ste. Madeleine met these requirements. This resulted in their relocated and dispossession of land and property while other non – Indigenous farmers were given their land. Ste. Madeleine was a situation where Metis framers were forced off their land, with minimal compensation, to provide land for Euro Canadian farmers. This occurrence can be examined as another example of the Canadian policy of oppression, assimilation, and dispersal of its Indigenous peoples.