The Wars by Timothy Findley: The Use of Animal Imagery

During World War I, the world of soldiers is seen as a world filled with violence that dehumanizes the soldiers causing in the changing and twisting of man, which is revealed by the decrease in the lack of affection towards animals. Within literature, imagery is the literary technique that creative writers use in their words or phrases to create mental images for readers to help visualize and more realistically experience the author’s writing.

The sufficient use of animal imagery in The Wars by Timothy Findley is used to characterize and explore the theme of the protagonist Robert Ross, a nineteen year old soldier, whose love and connection for animals is explored and revealed through the characterization of a third person’s point of view. In Timothy Findley’s The War, the existence and lives of animals is used to reveal and parallel Robert’s individuality, foretell situations that he will find himself in, and symbolize a ray of hope amidst the war. To begin with, Robert’s deep connection which parallels and reveals his individuality can be seen through the horses, rabbits and the coyote. Looking at Robert in a physical sense, he has many characteristic similarities that could be associated with the horses and that is being strong and athletic. Within the novel, horses became a metaphoric characteristic for soldiers like Robert whom were treated sub-humanly and this could be seen during the ship ride as the men had their privacy stripped away from them and were no more than animals. “Latrines and showers were virtually open forums where privacy was unheard of…tremendous heat from the boilers drew off oxygen. Everyone suffered from headaches” and people like Harris got sick. The Horses hold which Robert was appointed to “was one of horror…alive with flies” which paralleled the soldiers and reveled the connection between the way the men were crowded in their barracks without privacy and the horses in their hold with their urine and “manure left where it fell for days on end”. This can also be seen in how Robert is forced to ignore civility all in order to do everything it takes to survive in the trenches, that is soldiers who are sent to war like animals being decimated and like horses in war are made to fight and die meaningless battles “and not an inch of ground would be won”.

Rodwell drawing Robert in his sketchbook is seen as his recognition and/or acknowledgement of Robert’s connection to animals and “Robert was the only human form” among all the drawings of animals. The use of animal imagery in the novel does not only parallel Roberts’s individuality but also reveal his benevolence towards animals as well. When Robert realizes the insanity of the war towards the end of the novel, he requested with Captain Leather to release the horses but leather was adamant in his refusal and said “We should never live it down”. Robert jeopardizes his own life and status in order to save the horses but instead of him being acknowledged for his reasonable decisions, he was branded a traitor and was bound to be put to death by his commanding officer. In his final moments of being caught, Robert yelled “We shall not be taken”. This represented Robert and the horses.

Robert’s final unification with the horses showed his complete benevolence towards the horses and this can also be seen in his compassion towards the Rabbits when he tried to save Rowena’s rabbits after her death. The rabbits reminded Robert of his sister especially because they both shared the same qualities of innocence and frailty. Mrs. Ross said “The rabbits had to die – and Robert had to do it” all “because he loved her”. Robert’s sense of guilt for feeling he betrayed his sister by letting her die made it difficult for him to see someone kill them and as a result when he sees Teddy Budge was about to slaughter the rabbits, Robert says “You bastard! What are soldiers for?”, which shows his naivety and his lack of understanding of what a soldier is. It can also be said that should Robert have killed the Rabbits, it would be the same as killing the memories of Rowena. In his process of being a soldier, Robert encounters a coyote which signifies his understanding of himself. Robert’s encounter allows him to learn that just like a hunter, one must kill to survive but is only generous when not a hunter.

Coyotes have the traits of being hunters. That is they have to search for their preys hunt and kill so they have food for survival. This can parallel and relate to Robert in a sense that as a soldier, one must have a mindset of a hunter in order to survive the cruelty and the insanity of war. In the woods, Robert follows the coyote and watches as it comes to a place where “gophers had been sitting, neither did it pause to scuffle the burrows or sniff at them. It just went right on trotting – forward towards its goal”. This can be expressed as in the coyote chooses its prey carefully and as a soldier, one must choose their target carefully and must focus on their task at hand. Furthermore, in The War, in times of crisis, birds are seen to appear frequently. The birds in the novel are seen to foretell or foreshadow situations that lie ahead and Robert will find himself in. One moment would be when Robert made a wrong turn, and said to his men “the fog was full of noises”, which represented the birds. With all the silence of nature around them, Robert and Poole realized that “There must be something terribly wrong…but neither knew how to put it into words.

The birds, being gone, had taken some mysterious presence with them. There was an awful sense of void – as if the world had emptied”. This bird symbolized an impending doom which was about to occur at any moment. When “one of the birds flew up and cut across Robert’s path” as though warning him not to go any further especially having the difficulties to see in the fog, Robert does not heed the warning and as a result, almost dies sinking in the mud. Another foreboding bird shows up and “sang over their heads”, of Robert and his men who were drawing close to the enemy lines. As though giving away the Germans act of surprise attack, Robert looked up and saw the deadly gas attack moving in on the crew, “their cover was destroyed” and as a result, Robert was able to act fact and save the lives of his men. A bird once again sang “one long note descending; three that wavered”. With this, Robert sees a German soldier who had a snipper riffle with him and had all the chances to kill Robert and his men but was unfortunately killed by Robert who thought he was possibly reaching for a gun, when he later realizes that the enemy soldier was only reaching for his binoculars. Robert feeling a sense of guilt for killing the innocent man, contemplated as to why the man did not kill them all. And once again, the same bird sang a “one long note descending: three that wavered on the brink of sadness” as though this bird was a harbinger of death whenever it showed, it sang for the sorrowfully for the tragedies and deaths during the war.

In Robert’s case for this situation, he is the prey and the German sniper was the hunter just like the encounter with the coyote that didn’t kill unnecessarily, it can also be seen as foreshadow of deaths that were bound to occur on Robert’s journey. These foretelling situations that occurred with animals that involved themselves with Robert can be seen as these creatures giving Robert the opportunity to live because of the animalistic connection that he has with them. Finally, the animal imagery can symbolize a ray of hope amidst the war. War being a place of devastation and violence makes it difficult for people to believe that there could be any means of hope.