Oreal of War on Personality in How I Live Now Personal by Meg Rosoff

People are shaped by the experiences they have, and ordeals during war time have enormous effects on one’s personality. The tragedies witnessed and lives lost truly change a person. In Meg Rosoff’s novel How I Live Now, fifteen-year-old Daisy and fourteen-year-old Edmond are both shoved into the middle of a devastating war. What they see and how they act during this turbulent and dangerous time forms who they grow up to be. An Iraqi veteran murdered a man, but instead of going to jail, he received treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that war caused. War leaves scars on the hearts and souls of everyone it touches, never letting someone return to the way things were before battle. The atrocities of war affect countless people every day, changing their lives forever.

The war that occurs in How I Live Now sparks growth in multiple crucial characters. Daisy, the narrator of the story, begins the book with a sarcastic, contrary voice that slowly changes as the plot progresses. In the epilogue, Daisy is a much more patient, nurturing person. The war forces her to grow up before she was supposed, bringing about a one hundred and eighty degree turn around in her character. Completely opposite of Daisy, her cousin and love interest Edmond starts out the book kind, caring, and extremely perceptive –– to the point where Daisy believes that he can read minds. In the end, Edmond shows a complete character change, since he appears closed-off, withdrawn, and rather angry. He obsesses over his garden, channeling all that he sees in the war into growing flowers. Each of these characters exhibits extreme personality changes that would not have been brought on if not for the war. The war leaves no characters untouched, since “Every war has...

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... heal perfectly. Daisy and Edmond learn this verbatim; their personalities are twisted and mangled by their encounters during the war that sweeps across Britain. Our experiences shape us. War, though it has never touched me, is no exception; it affects countless lives on a daily basis.

War transforms people. Whether it’s a character in a novel or a war veteran, the tragedies of war warp a person’s heart, soul, and mind. Daisy and Edmond both exhibit complete turn-around’s in who they are at the conclusion of the war, as does Iraq veteran Jessie Bratcher when he murders his girlfriend’s rapist. Many of these changes may not have happened if not for war. Exposure to combat and warfare leaves invisible wounds that never heal flawlessly. Saying that we must have war to create peace is false; peace will never be obtained with mentally and physically scarring conflict.