Timothy Findley put The Wars together like a giant puzzle. When putting together a puzzle, a person must start from the outside and work inward, slowly adding piece by piece until a clear overall picture is seen. Readers must realize that the themes, characters, and setting of this book work like pieces of a puzzle; each of them is intertwined in the story and in each other. Their connections are the ties that hold the book together, and one of the ties at the heart of this puzzle is madness. To understand how madness seems to play an important role in the events of the war, we need to know the characters who are mad, the characters who believe they are mad, and how madness affects masculinity. Firstly the definition of insanity is the quality or condition of being mad. In certain circumstances, such as wars, everyone has the potential to become a monster. In war, soldiers face traumatic issues such as death. Some soldiers collapse and become delirious because they cannot manage the anxiety. Robert's madness didn't begin on the battlefield, but at home, and he wasn't the only one delirious. Mrs. Ross is not the only character to be considered insane. Two people also condemn Robert for insanity. The two people are the prostitute and the commanding officer. Ella, a prostitute, tries to convince Robert to have sex with her but he doesn't want to. Ella gets angry because she doesn't get paid if she doesn't have sex. Another reason is that the brothel will have a bad reputation. After hearing the explanations, Robert expresses his anger and Ella cowers in fear. After expressing anger, he did not have to have sex. He is forced to have sex but manages to escape it without anyone knowing. If Robert had said he didn't want to have sex in front of his fellow soldiers, he would have been targeted. His masculinity will be diminished. The definition of masculinity is the quality or condition of being masculine and is traditionally considered characteristic of a male. Masculinity is like grades. It's hard to stay consistent. A “weak” characteristic then the quality of the person's masculinity will decrease. Robert Ross is deemed insane by a commanding officer. Why? The reason is because he disobeyed an order from a commanding officer and saved the horses.