Stones

The short story "Stones" by Timothy Findley shows us a side of the war that most people pushed to the wayside in the 1940's. The story opens up during the 1940's and World War Two. To make a long story short, Ben's father returns from war and is a completely changed man. He used to be very loving, easy to get along with, and he never used profanity in the presence of his children. Now he is easily angered, constantly uses profanity, drinks profusely, he broke Ben's collar bone when he threw him of his bed, and he tried to beat Ben's mother with a hammer when the children were away. The children feel as though they are walking on eggshells around their father and the mother just tried to deal with it for the sake of her children. When Ben is older and beings to realize what happened to his father he becomes sympathetic (even after everything that his father had done to him). Ben finds out that his father was in the Dieppe raid that ended in disaster. He also found out that his father was supposed to lead a unit of soldiers in the second wave to hit the beach, but upon seeing the carnage he froze and then when the landing craft was bombed his father; took off his uniform, jumped on a British ship and when that got bombed he stayed with those people. He eventually was shipped to Britain and then sent back to Canada where he was dishonourably discharged and sent home in disgrace. Due to this his father was no longer the same and his family had to deal with his wrath and pent up anger, frustration, and sense of failure.

Now the story is written from the first person perspective of Ben. He is writing in retrospect about everything that happened to his family from shortly before his father left for war, and the aftermath of his father returning from war. The way he looks back without anger towards his father is amazing. His father became a violent man when he came back from war, he went as far as becoming abusive to his wife and children but Ben never blamed him for it. Actually Ben was the only person his father had left shortly before he died, he never left his father's side once. To me that shows the Ben understood why his father did what he did, it also shows how dedicated Ben was to his father.




I feel as though this story shows us the "ugly" side of the soldiers returning home back then. Many of the soldiers, like Ben's father, had to deal with Post traumatic stress disorder. Post traumatic stress disorder is stated in the Webster Merriam dictionary as being: a psychological reaction occurring after experiencing a highly stressing event (as wartime combat, physical violence, or a natural disaster) that is usually characterized by depression, anxiety, flashbacks, recurrent nightmares, and avoidance of reminders of the event —abbreviation PTSD —called also post-traumatic stress syndrome. This disorder completely takes over some people's lives and they are never the same again. During the time period that this story takes place having this disorder was probably a sign of weakness and post people wouldn't seek help to try and overcome it.


I believe that the reason Thomas Findley wrote this story was to open people's eyes about this disorder and the fact that not all reunions, between soldiers and families, are necessarily these happy, joyous occasions. Some soldiers leave for war and never fully return, yes they are back in body, but they aren't themselves anymore. It's very unfortunate but it's the way life is.


I should probably go on to talk about the poetic devices used within this story, but I feel as though the message behind it outweighs what poetic devices were used.