The Effects of War

The solider of World War I returned home to a group of people who did not know how to deal with the shell shocked men. Doctors believed it was something that the soldiers would just deal with and have to get over. Families did not know what to do or say to their loved ones who lived in their own world of war. In Mrs. Dalloway Septimus lived in his own world. He would have conversations with is dead friend Evans, imagine things happening in the house that really didn’t happen, and imagine conversations with his wife that really didn’t happen. Septimus didn’t trust his doctor. Septimus believed that Dr. Holmes was trying to get into his head so he could lock up Septimus. Septimus would not allow that. In the end Septimus threw himself out the window on to the railing below to avoid his invasion of privacy.  Solider suicides ran high after World War I. It was the first machine vs. human war and it wasn’t a war to kill. It was a war to see who could damage the enemy worse by putting their men in the hospital and not allowing them to return to the battlefield. The best way to do that was to mane the enemy.

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