The short story 'War' was written by an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet and short story writer Luigi Pirandello. He was awarded in 1934 the Nobel Prize in Literature for his contribution to the genre of drama.
The story represents also this genre. Basically, the author expressed the feelings of parents who lost their sons in the war. The plot of the story was built on conversations passengers (the parents of the soldiers) on the train had.
They argued about the attitude of children towards parents and of parents towards children. One passenger expressed his vision of relationships:
"We belong to them but they never belong to us. And when they reach twenty they are exactly what we were at their age. We too had a father and mother, but there were so many other things as well...girls, cigarettes, illusions, new ties...and the Country ..."
The story has a dramatic, tragic ending when the woman, who was desperately worried about her son, asked the man, who expressed patriotic ideas,"... is your son really dead?". The last sentence of the story revealed his sincere feelings, "His face contracted, became horribly distorted, then he snatched in haste a handkerchief from his pocket and, to the amazement of everyone, broke into harrowing, heart-breaking, uncontrollable sobs."
This is a link to the text of the story:
Thanks for the crisp overview of the story and the emotions of the people of that generation on war and parents & thier children relationship tangles.
ReplyDeleteGreat .
Good luck Anatoly