Good Bye to All that

“Goodbye To all that” by Robert Graves. The book begins with Robert Von Ranke Graves giving you a flashback to his childhood and his way of upbringing. Robert Graves was born on July 24, 1895 in Wimbledon, England. In the earlier stages of the book he depicts his description “My height is given as six feet two inches, my eyes as gray, and my hair as black” (Graves 3). Calls it his “biographical convention,” with that out of the way, Graves goes into a very detailed backdrop of his family on both his Mother, and Father’s side of the Family. His Mother is German, and his Father is Irish. He briefly describes both side’s qualities that they have, and what they have passed on to him. His Mother being very strict Christian always enforced on him the beauty of life. She kept him and all of the rest of the children very innocent about the true view of the world. She censored mostly everything. “My mother brought us up to be serious and to benefit humanity in some particularly way, but allowed us no hint of its dirtiest, intrigue and lustfulness, believing that innocence would be the surest protection against them” (Graves 29). His mother told him that was destined to be “if not a great man, at least a good man” (Graves 29).

He credits his Mother’s German family a great deal in the early stages of the book. Here he states “I admire my German relatives; they have high principles, and are easy, generous, and serious” (Graves 5). His Mother moved to England at age eighteen as a companion to Miss Britain, he describes her as lonely old woman who had befriended his grandmother as an orphan, and waited hand and foot for her seventeen years. His mother inherited 100,000 pounds for the death of Miss Britain. He adds on that “My Mother charact...

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...r of English Literature at the Egyptian University, Cairo. After some years of working there he decides to go back to England. Troubles with Nancy start to occur at home and they frequently get into agreements. After sometime of agreement they decide to leave each other, and Nancy taking the kids along with her. This was the final straw for Robert. He finally renounces his to never call England his home again, which explains the title for the book.

In conclusion, Robert was finally saying goodbye to all the things that he knew. He was becoming unrest with his life after the war. He didn’t see the simplistic view that he grew up with. Goodbye to all that not only says goodbye to his birthplace, but to everything that world has become. Robert did not want to be part of the change that society was embarking, and he decides to say goodbye to England, and all that.