Реферат: The Struggles Of Life Essay Research Paper

struggle with everyday life in the large city of Toronto. Minna witnesses horrific sights on

Queen Street:

… with all its resident rubbies and gentle crazies,

dressed in all weathers in their summer coats ….

….. and their eyes as crafty and innocent all

at once as the eyes of bears…. (Stones 11)

Minna Joyce experiences the harsh reality of individuals who have nothing, and are forced to

live on the streets of downtown Toronto. Minna was brought up in an area of the city inhabited

by many homeless people, or?artists?as she calls them, a little less horrifying. The thought of

having to watch the people suffer is horrifying to her. The war of life is apparent in the

challenges that both Minna and Robert are faced with in their lives. One of the most notable

events which Robert faces is trench warfare during the First World War. After being sent away

with a small battalion to begin the digging of another trench, Robert comes back to the front to

find the trench destroyed and his comrades dead.

When they made their way back through the trench

there was nothing left alive. They had all been

gassed or had frozen to death. Those who lay in

water were profiled in ice. Everything was green:

their faces ? and their fingers ? and their buttons and

the snow. (The Wars 146)

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In this situation, Robert witnesses many of the horrific ways in which soldiers were killed during

the First World War. Snow and the bitterly cold weather attributed to many Canadian soldiers?

deaths during World War One, and nearly one thousand men died from frost bite alone. The

sight of his friends frozen dead in the water is terrifying, and to look down and see another

soldier in the ice with his entire body green is a gruesome image. One of the most popular and

deadly tactics used by the Germans during World War One was chlorine gas, which Robert was

lucky to survive. He is subjected to the poison when it was sent up into the atmosphere which

produced huge masses of chlorine gas clouds. These clouds made their way across ?no man?s