Mrs. Ross begins to mentally separate herself from her son when she realizes that he is about to abandon her. From here on after any other description of Mrs. Ross in the book describes an alcoholic, broken wreck. At the end of the book, when Robert is reported missing in action, Mrs. Ross experiences grief beyond that of what any normal person might feel. This grief is so strong that it instantly leads to her blindness. During the time there were so many families which had sons that had donated their lives to the war that death had quickly become commonplace, but since Mrs. Ross was never able to actually come to terms with her son’s departure, she would never be able to return to normal after his death. When Robert died Mrs. Ross had lost the battle.

The most important war to the plot of the book was the one involving Robert’s image as a hero versus his many failures. During the time when boys were flooding out of Canada into Europe on their journey into manhood, the mere mention of the soldiers conjured respect, excitement and for some even jealousy. No one seemed to know the horrors of the war. For Robert Ross, this was no less true. Even before the war, failure was something that Robert was forced to become accustomed to, even when it involved something that he normally excelled at. Robert was a good runner and when he decided to run around the block 26 times, in likeness of his hero Longboat, success was close within his grasp. But on the 25th lap, Robert fainted dead away and was diagnosed with jaundice. Back then Ross would have no idea of the impact that failure would play in his life. At the end of the book, when fire is threatening the lives of over a hundred horses, Robert takes it upon himself to set them free and save their lives, something that under any other circumstance would have made him a hero. This is where perhaps one of Ross’s biggest failures begins to occour. Al

Some topics in this essay:
Robert Ross, Robert Ross’s, Ross Ross, Canada Europe, Timothy Findley, World War, , robert ross, book robert, wars involving ross, involving ross inability, ross experiences, ross fights, sensitivity responsibility, ross allows, fought wars, ross’s sensitivity, throughout book, ultimately leads,