The Wars读后感锦集

《The Wars》是一本由Timothy Findley著作，Faber and Faber出版的Paperback图书，本书定价：USD 14.45，页数：218，特精心收集的读后感，希望对大家能有帮助。

《The Wars》读后感(一)：战争中的人性

非常好。Timothy Findley 简直就是现代文学的莎士比亚。每一页都有值得钻研和深思的文字。这本书很有内涵，但也有不小一部分揭露人性肮脏的一面的内容。

有些读者觉得在故事刚刚开始的时候情节很混乱。 这是因为作者的文笔属于contemporary writing 的流派。 这种写作手法不局限于严格的语法结构，但十分注重描绘读者阅读时的想法与感受。这本书越读到后面就越有味道。建议多读几遍。

The Wars的中心思想多于道德教育和人性现实有关。 举个例子：

“In such dangerous things as war the errors that proceed from the spirit of benevolence are the worst” 说的是战争中的仁慈往往会导致悲剧。

总体来说，这是一本十分值得阅读的书！

《The Wars》读后感(二)：如果人类不反省自身的恶，那么，他们还是die out了好。

在经历开篇的摸不着头脑和中段的貌似无目的的游离情节片断之后，强忍着看下去，直到中后部分，才渐渐心中有了眉目，然后到书的结尾，居然流泪了，除了被Robert Ross的所作所为和理解他所作所为的那些人感动之外，更多的是痛心。相比“In such dangerous things as war the errors which proceed from a spirit of benevolence are the worst”,最使我有感触的反而是书的结尾引用的Irish essayist and critic Nicholas Fagan的话：“the spaces between the perceiver and the thing perceived can ...be closed with a shout of recognition. One form of a shout is a shot. Nothing so completely verifies our perception of a thing as our killing of it.”这话让我感到莫大的悲哀，如果人类自以为they own whatever land they land on，而对于远处的、不明的、尚未被自己占有或臣服的物体一律用屠杀之来确认的话，那么，人类就是多疑、贪婪、自私、无知、浪费、邪恶的物种，不仅是发起战争的祸端，更是毁灭人类自己和地球所有生物、甚至地球本身的魔鬼。如果人类不反省自身的恶，那么，他们还是die out了好。

看完结局再看开篇，才发现，一切凌乱都有其必要和意义。Chapter One中的Prologue，在最后一个Chapter得到了回应。当那匹黑色的母马和她的伙伴狗还有Robert经过损毁的火车时，母马停下来，呼唤被困在车厢里的同伴，Robert明白了they should go together.于是他们浩荡前行，只是此时月亮升起，一片血色。

书里还有几个小细节让我很有感触。

一是Robert Ross慌乱中杀死的那个年轻的德国狙击手，他的自责伴随他一直到死。

二是尽力保全兔子、蛤蟆和其他动物生命的Rodwell，他是心中有爱的人类的代表，他无法阻止那些在战壕里以烧死老鼠为乐的疯狂的士兵，并且被他们强迫观看屠杀一只猫的过程，最后Robwell自杀了。而他留给Robert的素描本上，从他给Robert作的画像上，Robert看到的，人，并无其他特别，只是跟那些小动物一样的，累了会酣睡的生物。我想，Robwell一定让Robert从中明白了一些什么，才有后来他为了那些马而放弃战争。

三是那些不停地感叹：“Isn't it marvellous!”的军官，只说“Just so”的领导，他们说这话的时候，似乎毫不关心已经死去和正在死去的士兵们，简直毫无人性。

四是Poole，当防空洞被炸之后，Robert心急如焚地要把Poole从泥土里扒出来，可是，当他被他的fellow officers凌虐之后,接到Poole送来的kit bag之后，他迫切希望从Poole那儿得到一些温暖，比如，男人也是可以拥抱对方的，但，完全没有。冰冷的简短问答完后，他听着Poole一路离去，他走到窗户前，希望看到Poole能向他挥手告别，但，完全没有。此时此刻，有什么东西熄灭成灰。

五是一些SM的情节，我想，可能是经历战争的人精神扭曲才发生的吧，当Robert第一次见到Taffler和瑞典人的场景，他没法理解。可后来，他去了战场，再回来，也做了类似的事。

六是那个关键的叙述人Lady Juliet d'Orsey，她让我有些联想起电影《赎罪》中的小女孩。

《The Wars》读后感(三)：incredibly impressive

我查了一下，没有找到这本书的中译本。可能这个作者对于大部分加拿大以外的人来说都是never heard of. 当然我本来也不知道。daniel从加拿大寄来的书，出于礼貌翻阅了一些，却发现是本很有特点的小说，如果一本书读了三分之一，我的预料还是和结局有所不同，我就会坚持把它读完。

这本书一开始上来让人感觉散乱，摸不着头脑。忽而如小说，忽而如记录片般的回忆叙述。而且从头至尾这本小说都在很多细节上保持了mysterious的特质。introduction里一位现代的作家提到the irreducibility of meaning that marks great literature,我想如果拿很多细节去追问原作者，也未必会获得满意的答案。

小说一开始，作者引了一句Clausewitz的话 "In such dangerous things as war the errors which proceed from a spirit of benevolence are the worst." 这句话也就成为了小说最主要的基调，成为主人公robert最终反抗并且灭亡的主要原因。

这本书给我的触动很大。反正douban上也没有其他人看过，我就自娱自乐把我在fb上给他的留言转在这，就算是对读过这本书留个纪念吧。

it's kinda confusing at the beginning of the wars. before the prologue, the writer cited a sentence from Clausewitz that" in such dangerous things as war the errors which proceed from a spirit of benevolence are the worst." i didnt quite understand it until robert's rebellion and being treated as a traitor. there are several parts in the novel where roberts showed caring love for animals and reluctance to slaugher them. and finally, his benevolence preluded his unfitness as a killing machine in the war and ultimately his death.

i was greatly touched by this novel. after the novel, i read the introduction. and i can't agree more that this novel is somewhat like a mystery defying simple interpretation. there are many parts in it require further reading and deeper thinking. as to the "questionable part" of it (robert was attacked and insulted in the bathroom cell), i was thinking maybe the writer wanted to show that a benevolent man in war is doomed and those ferocious killers who committed ruthless killings and attacks might be rewarded. (it was mentioned that those rapists were no other than robert's fellow soldiers)

i think it's not fair to call robert a good or bad person. he was an ordinary HUMAN who wasn't brainwashed by the bloody killings in wars and who still kept the soft and gentle part of a human being and who was finally ruined by his being-a-human-quality. because the wars require no mercy from human.

honestly, i dont think i understand the title "the wars" fully. but nonetheless, i like it. the structure of this novel is kinda messy, but this unique way of storytelling makes it incredibly interesting and attractive. i think now i know why it is your favorite. :) it was not just a war novel, not a novel about A WAR, but THE WARS. by that i mean the constant warring between the humanity and the brutality which marks the bloody history of all the human civilization.

事实是，这个世界上有很多作家写着精彩的作品，却无法再这个市场化的阅读时代找到自己的位置。不过我还是希望有一天会有中国的翻译家注意到这本书，并且翻译它，对于心存武力扩张的人们，或许会有些用。

《The Wars》读后感(四)：疯狂与理智

这学期选了一门课叫：一战后的加拿大文学。被指定阅读的第一本就是Timothy Findley的The Wars。这部小说的主题比较多：战争、家庭关系、人与自然、性欲（sexuality；里面有同性情节，小说的主角其实就是同性恋，或者双性恋，而作者本人在青春期就已经出柜为同性恋）等等。虽然看起来不太容易，但确实是一本很棒的小说。我觉得很棒的一个点在于，读完了小说，其中的某些人物、某些情节会印在你的脑海里，久久挥之不去。

就我自己而言，小说的主角肯定是让人印象深刻，但同时给我留下很深印象的是主角的母亲Mrs. Ross。我最开始其实不太能理解，为什么作者要把Mrs. Ross刻画成一个濒临崩溃的人。小说开头，她患病的女儿意外身亡，葬礼之后，她坚决要求她的儿子Robert Ross（也就是主角）杀死曾经陪伴她女儿的兔子。Robert Ross跟死去的姐姐关系非常亲密，一定程度上他就是他姐姐的监护人，而她的死让他患上深深的负罪感，因为在她出意外的时候，他正在自己的房间里手淫。如果他在她身边，也许悲剧就不会发生了。正是怀有这样的负罪感，在被母亲逼迫要杀死兔子之后的第二天，他就加入了第一次世界大战。儿子走后，Mrs. Ross的情况变得更加糟糕，她也越来越远离她的丈夫和子女。她深爱她的子女，却已经找不到合适的方式去表达她的爱，去与子女进行沟通。她不明白，为什么有的人，子女远去战场，即将失去生命，他们还要去教堂听主教宣扬战争，宣扬帝国主义。

小说其实贡献了不小的篇幅来刻画Mrs. Ross这个人物。她经常处于醉酒的状态，房间里散发着酒的气味，与丈夫和子女的关系越来越疏远，看似快要疯狂，却又活得异常清醒，洞察社会，洞察人性。读完小说，我不理解的就是作者为什么要把Mrs. Ross刻画成这个样子。而在我读过作者Timothy Findley的一篇Interview（这个Interview是作者的同性爱人作为访问人，作者作为被访问人，最后由作者发表在Canadian Literature的期刊上面）之后，才更深入地理解她这个角色。然后，我写了这门课的第一篇Essay。

The Tragedy of Being Sane in an Insane World

“Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.” This quote comes from the notebooks of the renowned American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, and I think this is exactly how Timothy Findley, an esteemed Canadian novelist and playwright, has done with his third novel The Wars, which wound up winning him the Governor General’s Award in 1977, the same year of its publication. The Wars, through complex literary structures and techniques, successfully tells the poignant story of Robert Ross, a nineteen-year-old Canadian, going to the First World War following the death of his beloved sister Rowena. By telling the tragic fates of such characters as Mrs. Ross, Robert Ross, and Captain Rodwell, Timothy Findley shows us one of the biggest tragedies of human beings lies in our powerlessness to cope with the insanity of the world, and being sane is as destructive as it is dangerous.

Sanity, in my opinion, is a state of mind where people with sharp vision can see the reality and see things as they really are. When the world is insane, the sane may be viewed as insane by people who fail to recognize the insanity of the world and who view insanity as being normal. I gain such a perception of sanity after reading an interview of Timothy Findley by William Whitehead, in which Timothy Findley was asked to explain his obsession with characters that were seemingly insane and his unique view of insanity (Findley, “Alice” 17-18). I resonate deeply with Timothy Findley’s idea that sanity calls for real insights and wisdom, and I discover that this perception of sanity is vital to the understanding of the characters in The Wars.

In this novel, Mrs. Ross is the first victim of being sane even before the First World War breaks out, before her daughter accidentally passes away, and before her son enlists to the army. She shows remarkable insights into the world when she is still young. She mistrusts marriage and fears being loved: “The fact of being loved was difficult: almost intolerable. Being loved was letting others feed from your resources – all you had of life was put in jeopardy (Findley, “Wars” 139).” Knowing too well about human nature is sometimes more a curse than a blessing when one does not know how to reconcile with one’s inability to cope with the dark side. Insights and intellect become hindrance that, as time passes by, Mrs. Ross gradually drifts away from her family. Later when Robert Ross grieves over the death of Rowena, Mrs. Ross, in a harsh way, reveals to her son the truth of human relationships and the true nature of war:

‘You think Rowena belonged to you. Well I’m here to tell you, Robert, no one belongs to anyone. We’re all cut off at birth with a knife and left at the mercy of strangers. You hear that？ Strangers. I know what you want to do. I know you’re going to go away and be a soldier. Well – you can go to hell. I’m not responsible. I’m just another stranger. Birth I can give you – but life I cannot. I can’t keep anyone alive. Not any more.’ (Findley, “Wars” 25)

By then, the intrinsic flaws of human understanding and human communication have put up a wall between Mrs. Ross and Robert Ross, and the son is only too young to see the truth. After Robert Ross goes to war, Mrs. Ross is so angry when she sees people going to the church to listen to the Bishop talking about holy wars and Empire and even sing when their children face the prospect of being killed in the battlefields. She cannot understand and she is in agony because there is nothing she can do to save those soldiers and her son. Afterwards, she more and more distances herself with her husband and children partly due to their failure to see or recognize the truth.

Robert Ross’s tragic fate is almost predestined. He is too young to have the wisdom of his mother, and his affinity with his elder sister Rowena, Harris, Rodwell and with animals shows he is too innocent to survive the cruelty of the war. Still, like his mother, he is intelligent. In the novel, there is a picture that shows him as a spectator watching a band performing the ‘Soldiers of the Queen’. I think there are also soldiers in the picture. “He watches with a dubious expression; half admiring – half reluctant to admire. He’s old enough to go to war. He hasn’t gone. He doubts the validity in all this martialing of men but the doubt is inarticulate. It stammers in his brain. (Findley, “Wars” 11)” We can see that before he goes to war, he is already doubting the meaning of war. It is unfortunate that what is inarticulate in his mind then will become clear only after he has personally experienced what it is like to be a soldier in war. In the process, he is horrified by the violent sex of his idol in the brothel; he is forced to kill a horse which breaks its leg on the ship; he loses Harris whom he is attached to; he kills a German soldier who has intended to let him live when he could have killed him; he witnesses violence and is raped by his fellow soldiers at the Desolé. All these experiences make him more and more violent and it seems to us that he almost loses his innocence. But finally, he is able to see the savage nature of war that deprives people of their humanity and their regard for life, be it human life or animal life. Then he deserts his preconceived ideas about patriotism, heroism and imperialism, and retains his innocence by saving the horses. However, the moment he recognizes the insanity of the war and of the world, he becomes doomed, because in the presence of the powerful war machine he is completely powerless. This inevitably leads to his tragedy.

Captain Rodwell is much like Robert Ross, tenderhearted and innocent. He refers to animals with he and she, and he views the life of animals as important as, or even more important than, the life of human beings. In the end, his innocence meets with the madness of his fellow soldiers who are broken down by the ceaseless bombing and killing. Like everyone else, he is incapable of changing the situation and he voluntarily shoots himself to death to escape the insanity of the war.

In one sense, the world has always been insane if viewed from certain perspectives, and the nature of life is intrinsically tragic. Seeing and living with reality requires not only great insights and wisdom, but also the capability to endure pain. Consequently, being sane poses the risk of living with pain. This may be why in real life, many of us protect ourselves by denying the reality or choosing not to see the reality. In The Wars, the world during the Great War is so insane as to make our powerlessness all too evident in the presence of forces unmeasurably larger than ourselves, and under certain circumstances living becomes unbearable and death becomes relief. At the same time, through the tragic fates of these characters, The Wars further reinforces our understanding of what war really means to the world and to us.

Works Cited

Findley, Timothy. The Wars. Penguin, 2017.

---. “Alice Drops Her Cigarette on the Floor…” Canadian Literature, no. 91, 1981, pp. 17-18.