The Wars of Timothy Findley If you took a sensitive, caring person and put him in the middle of a chaotic area, what do you think would happen? Would these people adapt to this area and live like everyone else, or would they become a mental wreck unable to cope with what is happening around them? This was the theme of Timothy Findley's novel The Wars, and that's exactly what happened. Findley took a sensitive and thoughtful individual, Robert Ross, and sent him to war. Ross became unable to cope with all the events that were happening around him and eventually went mad. The life Robert Ross had lived before was nothing compared to the one he was living during the war. When Robert Ross was a child he was the captain of everything, a popular and academic student. His friends and family adored him and he was the ideal of every boy in the community. You might think that Robert would have no problem dealing with the world he lived in, but that would be an inaccurate statement. The first sign of trouble was Rowena's death. Robert and Rowena were very close like brother and sister, losing each other was unbearable for Robert, which started a spiral that led to the end result, madness. Little things like killing Rowena's rabbits couldn't be done, communicating with others was difficult, Robert decided he had to escape. But for someone as sensitive as Robert Ross, war was not where he should have gone. The chaos and destruction of the war, and everything he experienced, such as murder and rape, were unbearable for Robert and led him to the end result of madness and death. In The Wars Timothy Findley uses an unusual timeline to present his story. It is told from the point of view of an author trying to reconstruct the life of Robert Ross. The very first scene is of Robert Ross riding horses along the tracks circa 1918. The story then picks up in 1915 but flashes back to the death of his sister. Throughout the story there is also an element of confusion as the people telling the story, and therefore the perspective, are constantly changing. The timeline in this novel varies because it tends to jump from one person's opinion of Robert's situation to another. If this didn't happen, the novel would be too depressing to read due to the constant vision of war.