Findley gives a good description of “the mud”, symbolizing its harshness and hostile nature by giving it “colour of steel.”(p.76) The erosion of the topsoil indicates no growth and friendliness towards humans, “Over most of the plain there isn’t a trace of topsoil: only sand and clay.”(p.76) Robert faces a hostile confrontation when he is almost drowned in the mud, “Suddenly his right foot went down. All the way down to the knee through the earth. Dear Jesus---he was going to drown.”(p.85) Robert’s struggle to free himself from the mud can be compared to his attempt to set the horses free, “He began to push again and to life---thrusting his pelvis upward harder and harder---faster and faster against the mud.”(p.86) Another example of Earth turning hostile can be seen when the men’s dugout collapses under the heavy mortar firing, and Robert thinks that the Earth has killed his bugler Poole, “Poole. T

he ledge cut into the earth where he’d been lying had completely disappeared.”(p.124-125) Earth is not pure anymore, and has been contaminated by the chemical warfare. The natural facts of Earth are gone, “It stank of sulphur and chlorine.”(p.125) Robert tries to fulfil Rodwell’s wish by restoring the toad to its natural earthly habitat, “Early that morning, Robert had released the toad beneath a hedge….The toad at once had begun to burrow into the welcome mud. It threw the dirt in all directions --- making a nest for itself until its eyes were all that could be seen.”(p.155) Thus, Earth conveys two different ideas: nurturing and hostility.

Like Earth, Air undergoes several transformations resulting in a fatal effect for human beings. When leaving for war, Robert senses all of his childhood in the mist around him, “…the mist was filled with rabbits and Rowena and his father and his mother and the whole of his past life---birth and death and childhood. He could breathe them in and breathe them out.”(p.14) Robert is able to breathe in this air. Air is a death-bringing element, and is polluted with hatred. Robert constantly senses the air turning hostile, “It stank of sulphur and chlorine.”(p.125) The unfriendly nature of air is seen when Robert is on convoy duty, “The air was foul with thick green fog. There was a smell that Robert could not decipher.”(p.79) Whenever Robert breathes in, he can remember the safety that home provided, “Slithering over the crater’s rim---a pale blue fog appeared. Like a veil his mother might’ve worn.”(p.137) Robert tries to save the life of the man with the broken legs by giving him his mask, “Put that over his face.”(p.139) In the same scene, Robert allows the others to breathe by ordering the men to urinate on their handkerchiefs and placing them over their faces. Robert brings air from his childhood to the infected atmosphere of the war, “It was an image clear and definite as the words themselves: two tiny bottles poised side by side. Crystals forming in the air. Ammonium-chloride-

Some topics in this essay:
Budge Robert, Marian Turner, Whenever Robert, Earth Air, Robert Earth, February Ross, Nature Findley, Dear Jesus---he, Robert Air, Timothy Findley, war robert, “it stank sulphur, fire destroys, robert tries, air fire, sulphur chlorine”p125, stank sulphur, “it stank, natural elements, stank sulphur chlorine”p125,