- This topic has 5 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 1 month ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
One of the themes of the novel is the cost of war—both physical and emotional—on soldiers as well as those who remain on the home front. Which characters in the novel are most scarred by their experiences in a war? How do they try to cope with those scars? Have things changed for those who fight in wars today?
-
In some ways, this question reminds me of the conundrum of the which is your favorite book (or favorite child) question. All of the men who went to war were deeply scarred, both physically and emotionally. There is almost no character in TRWR who is unscarred by service in the war. Angie lost her husband, the man who accepted her despite her past.
All of the men in Jewel were directly involved. In WWII, that was a much more equally shared burden.
The biggest difference I see, is how these men coped with the scars of their service. Brody, Noah and Sam Wicklow turned it into service to others, different kinds of service, but a commitment to decency and honesty. Creasy turned it against himself, his family and the people of Jewel. Creasy uses alcohol and violence. The others use a dedication to their work, their words or their family.
I believe nothing has fundamentally changed in what serving in a war zone costs those who step up. It is always about killing if one faces anyone who may be the enemy. There is more distance now. Strikes are launched from a distance and the vistims are anonymous. I doubt that is sufficient to prevent the emotional scars.
My dad was a 1st Lt. in the U.S. Army in WWII, serving in the armored field artillery. He rarely spoke about it and described a pretty distanced experience. His unit was assigned to destroy distant targets they did not see, relying on coordinates to launch an artillery strike. After reading TRWR, I wonder if there was more to it, if I might have learned more if I know what I do now. (Since my father would be 112 in 2025, I recognize that any such missed opportunity is long past!)
-
I think that Tyler Creasy is probably the most scarred by his experiences in WWII, at least in a visible way. Before the war he was quiet and unremarkable. When he returned, he fought with everyone, including his own family. His mother told him that she wished he had come home in a coffin. He was usually drunk and had been charged with assault from a bar fight. He expresses racism and prejudice against Noah Bluestone as a “thieving redskin.” Creasy beats his wife and stepson. He burns down the Bluestone barn, beats and rapes Kyoko, intending to ruin the Bluestones which he succeeds in doing when he kills Noah.
Felix Klein earned the Distinguished Service Medal in WWI and is probably the saddest of the vets. He celebrated every new day during the war because he never expected to come back alive. Felix often spent time sobering up in the jail. He is often drunk in order to cope with his wife’s suicide. I wonder if this was because of Felix’ service. We are never really told, except that she wasn’t an easy woman to live with and was not happy.
I do not think things have changed for those have fought in more recent wars, except perhaps the availability of more treatment. And those who came back from Vietnam were not really welcomed in the same way as vets from other wars.
-
I totally agree, Jane, that numerous characters in this book had been scarred by the war; the men who fought, the children who were left fatherless, the women who had to deal with both the presence and the absence of these men. Most of the men who fought had physical scars of some sort, but also emotional scars which seemed to shape them even more so. And I find it hard to quantify who is scarred more; they are all changed by their experiences. I’m inclined to agree with you, Nancy, that Tyler Creasy might win the contest here, because he supposedly was a decent boy who came back a despicable man. He totally lost himself, and the promise of who he could have become. The others had certain demons, but they didn’t let them define them. They were all trying to live their best lives, and kept moving forward. (Felix seemed more derailed by the loss of his wife than by his war experiences, though I’m sure they affected who he was as well.)
Like yours, Jane, my dad was a WWII vet. His experiences, though, were definitely up close and personal; he was an Army infantryman, and was awarded a Purple Heart when wounded in New Guinea. He never talked about his experiences to us when we were children, but when he got older, and I became his caregiver as an adult, he gradually told me a lot of things that made my heart break. He’d been a kid barely past the age of 20 and went through some horrible stuff; and it did change him. Those experiences haunted him all his life, literally. Vets like him from WWII were supposed to suck it all up and keep it all in, though — you didn’t really talk about such things, unless it was to another vet, and even then, you kept it as light as possible. WWJWD? (“What would John Wayne do,” basically.) I imagine your dad might have kept some things to himself, too. The characters in this book certainly did. Your dad’s war was different from my dad’s, but the business of killing is traumatic to a thinking human being, no matter how you do it. I was glad that Brody was finally able to unburden himself to Angie. Those were terrible secrets to have to bear alone.
From what I can see, one of the differences nowadays is that there is more mental help available, where vets can talk things out if they’re willing. It’s not as stigmatized today to admit you could use some help. It’s recognized that soldiers require both physical and emotion balance. And physically, they can do some remarkable things with better prosthetics, too, so that people like Sam might have had an easier time getting around.
-
Jane and Susan, thank you for sharing a bit about your fathers’ experiences. They emphasize just how many of their generation were affected by war and how many families too. I know many were not encouraged to talk about their experiences with others, or their experiences were too painful and personal to want to do so. I know that the clubs and legions that sprung up after the war helped many men find some solace through friendships. My mother would often visit the legions (sometimes with me in tow) to share a drink with them. Being Dutch, she had a lifelong appreciation and respect for Canadian soldiers because of their part in the liberation of Holland when she was a young girl. As a child, I also knew a few of the men who fought in WWII, and they were strong, quiet men. I did not know their personal stories, but I grew up with them as neighbours, much like Scott did in Jewel.
In this book nearly all the men appear to have been scarred by the war. I don’t have much to add to what you all have written. I was struck deeply by the two women most affected by the war, namely Marta and Kyoko. Kyoko losing her family to the atom bomb and being affected by the radiation herself and Marta losing her family in Germany. They are women whose “home fronts” were those of the enemy, and they paid an almost unimaginable price.
I don’t think things have changed for those who fight in wars in terms of the violence and trauma they experience. If anything, modern warfare brings a new set of horrors. But I think there is more awareness of PTSD and more support systems to help them process their experiences (how much, I can’t say, as I don’t know).
-
Good point about Marta and Kyoko. Like your mother, their worlds were affected profoundly by the process of war. It’s definitely not just the active combatants who suffer.
-
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.