The Wars Timothy Findley Essay

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As humans, many of the choices we make are based on our emotions. Our mental state is often a large source of motivation for why we do the things we do. There are times in life where we act strictly based on how we are feeling. Our emotions motivate a significant amount of our actions, more than we would like to admit. In Timothy Findley’s, The Wars, we are given clear examples of how many of Robert’s decisions are based on his feelings at that certain time. The nature of motivations that direct an individual’s course of actions is stemmed from their mental state and their feelings at that point in time.

After the death of Rowena, we begin to really understand the type of person Robert truly is. What we find as time passes is that he begins
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This shame, like many of this other feelings caused him to do things he would usually not feel comfortable doing. The most obvious example of this is when Robert has absolutely no desire to go to the brothel but yet, he does. For the fear that the others would think that he is a homosexual and then look down upon him, he is motivated by not only what others will think but how he will think of himself. The men pressure him into going and Robert cannot seem to overcome his shame and therefore, puts himself into an extremely uncomfortable position. In addition, we see Robert feel an overwhelming sense of shame again, when he is sexually assaulted in his room. When the men leave him he is overcome with emotion and frantically begins destroying his room looking for his gun. Then, he burns the only picture he has with him of his beloved sister. This can be interpreted as trying to save her from the cruelty of humanity, and because of the shame he feels towards himself and the rest of the world, this is his act of “charity”. Clearly, that is a strange thing to do, but given the past events and the immense amount of suffering he had experienced, his mind was in a very unhealthy

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