Community in Two Novels essays

Community in Two Novels essays Community is often thought of as a town, city, or even neighborhood, but community can refer to just about any group who has common beliefs, common values, or some sort of commonality. Families are small communities, and so are schools, churches, and groups with like ideals or causes. Both of these novels concern communities, and how many of the novels' characters interact with communities, both small and large. Communities are made up of individuals, but unless the individuals conform to community standards, or feel comfortable with them, they will have an uneasy relationship with the community, and with themselves, just as these two novels so graphically illustrate. Both main characters in these novels have uneasy relationships with their family, which translate into uneasy relationships within their small community, and thus translate to uneasy relationships with their larger community. In "The Wars," Robert's estrangement from his family begins with the death of his sister Rowena, and his decision to join the army to fight in Europe, as this passage illustrates, "'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. (Findley 23). Immediately the reader understands the depth of the division in the family, and how Robert is struggling with his identity in his small familial community, just as his mother, Mrs. Ross, will struggle with her identity in the larger community where they live after he leaves. Part of successful assimilation in a community is feeling comfortable and that you belong. In this case, Robert feels he has nothing in common with his mother, and so, leaves the family because the member he loved the most is gone. He is searching for himself, meaning in his life, and attempting to discover where he fits i...