Tomorrow When The War Began Essay

At some point in everyone's lifetime, a tough choice emerges. The characters in John Marsden’s

Tomorrow, When the War Began are thrown straight into the deep end, and have to make life or death decisions, without any clear right answers. A group of seven teenagers returns from a camping trip to find their home town of Wirrawee silenced by foreign invaders. They struggle to survive, and the thing all of them want most is to be reunited with their families who the enemy are holding as prisoners. This essay will discuss the ethics and morals around killing, breaking the law and the whole war that the characters find themselves in.

The presence of death in the novel looms over the characters, making each of them reflect on the things they are forced

Early in the book, Homer stated that because of the war, ‘normal rules don’t apply’. He backs this up by pointing out that it was enemy who ‘tore up the rule book’ (Pg. 97), and it wasn’t the group’s fault. Another part of the war is the theory of a ‘“clean” invasion’, where the enemy would try to keep violence at low levels, to prevent the involvement of other countries. This tactic fails, and by the time things settle down ‘there’s been about forty deaths just around Wirrawee alone’ (Pg. 225). Ultimately, they were forced into the war and all the negative consequences that come with it, leaving a lasting mark on their ethical codes.

Ethics and morals play a serious role in Tomorrow, When the War Began. Seven teenagers go up against all odds trying to survive the horror, win a war and regain their way of life. From deciding if killing and breaking the law can be justified to the ethics of warfare, the themes in the novel have a significant impact on the thoughts, actions and character of the teenagers. They found themselves in a nightmare that called into question their previous views and morals, putting all of them to the