War

This is a very short story about a couple traveling by train to Rome to see their only son off to the front. The couple enter the train. The woman is very sad about her son going to war, and the...

The primary conflict is how parents effectively justify their children fighting and dying in the nature of war. The main characters are a husband and wife who are in a railway car. The husband is...

One of the train passengers in Pirandello's “War” is a man whose son has recently lost his life in the First World War. At first, the man appears not just stoical in the face of his loss but...

The characters in "War" are the people in the traveling carriage. A man and his wife who are mourning because their son is about to go to war join the original five people on the carriage. The...

The theme of Pirandello's short story is that there can be little justification to the horrific nature of war. At the time of Pirandello's writing, World War I had been waged by many countries in...

The message that the old man's son sends to him justifies his participation in the war. While his father believes the son's words, it does not ease the pain over his death. The old man carries...

I think that a significant theme that comes out of Pirandello's short story is that there is a pain intrinsic to war that cannot be placated. Pirandello's story is so powerful because it...

The overriding theme in Pirandello's work is the inescapable premise that the existing orders that helped to provide meaning and understanding no longer apply in the modern setting. The...

In Pirandello's "War," the different attitudes that the passengers articulate about war reflect the challenge of enduring it. When the man and wife enter the train, they sit amongst the other...

One significant symbol in "War" is the second class railway car that serves as the setting for the story. It is significant because all of the travellers are thrown into this car, with varying...

The mood of this story is one I would describe as ironic and darkly humorous while still retaining a core emotion of tragedy. All the characters have a varying degree of detached misery. As a way...

The fat man at first appears to be an unapologetic jingoist and militarist. He ventures to suggest that young men don't really belong to their parents; they belong to the nation. That being the...

The climax of "War" comes at the point that the bulky woman, bundled in her coat as she weeps that her son has been taken to the front to fight for the country in the war, suddenly turns to the old...

The story is a polemic that takes place among passengers on a train. The thin man and his large wife, who are upset over their son's impending assignment to the front, are chastised by the other...

I do not see the woman as oblivious. I think that her asking the question is quite appropriate in a several ways. The fat man is railing on quite extensively about how kids are meant to be...

One of the story's main themes is the intellectualizing of the emotions. The fat man on board the train attempts to try and rationalize unpleasant emotions as a means of banishing them altogether....

The controlling idea of the story "War" is how the people cannot control some events around them, no matter how much they may believe they can. Humans tend to believe they are superior...

The fat man makes the argument that the parents should not dwell too much on how they must give up their sons to the war effort. He draws the picture of his own son who writes and conveys how...

When the old traveler is introduced, he is described as "a fat, red-faced man with bloodshot eyes of the palest gray." This description suggests that the traveler is unwell, and this impression is...

One of the reasons that Pirandello's story is so effective is that it rests upon the fat man's certainty. He enters the car and commands the center of attention. He gives a spirited discussion as...

The fat man operates as the force that tells parents the nobility of a child dying in name of country. When he hears of the parent son the train feeling despondent over sending their children to...

Oddly, Nobel Prize winning (1934) dramatist Luigi Parandello's short story "War" has no specifically designated protagonist or antagonist; instead all the characters who board the train at Fabriano...

The "fat man" is meant to offer the ultimate justification in sending boys and soldiers off to war. His rationale in how parents must deal with their children going off to fight lies in the idea...

I would say that a very interesting contrast can take place between the fat man and the mother. The mother is relatively silent throughout most of the story. She appears inconsolable, and...

I would say that the theme of this story is that war is pointless. War is pointless (in modern times) because the old things that made war have a point do not apply today. Pirandello shows the...

A group of passengers are packed aboard a second-class railway carriage, waiting to complete the remainder of their journey to the Italian village of Sulmona. As they wait, they begin striking up...

In this short story, Pirandello relies on dialogue, which allows the characters to tell their own story. This is important because the dialogue carries the story and shows that people don't really...

A group of travelers are on board a train heading for Rome. All of them have been affected in one way or another by the ongoing war. A lady has just come aboard with her husband; they are traveling...

The characters in Luis Pirandello's short story "War" refer to Italy, the country where they are from, as "the country." It is as if, to them, it is the ultimate authority. They say their sons have...

According to her husband, the woman is upset because their son, an only child to whom they have “devoted their entire lives” is set to leave for the warfront in three days time. The couple enters...

In one sense, it's impossible to know why Luigi Pirandello uses so much dialogue in his short story "War." We don't actually have an essay by him explaining his choices, and we can't read his...

Luigi Pirandello's short story "War" presents a brief yet harrowing glimpse into the world of those who are left behind when the young are sent off to war. The story follows a number of parents...

The woman who was separated from her son as a result of the war sits in the corner and asks the question that drives the stake into the heart of all the rationales and justifications behind war. I...

The train with all the people in it might represent the collective sense of helplessness that envelops all people when a nation goes to war. There does not seem to be a lucid direction to the...

It is important to understand what the red-faced passenger shares in "War" by Luigi Pirandello in the context of the short story's situation. A couple boards a train in Italy. They are deeply...

The construction of the story is through dialogue in a railroad car. There is the presence of a third person omniscient narrator that understands the internal feelings of all the characters and...

I assume that you are talking about the fat man who talks about how his son was proud to die for his country... I imagine that the author makes that man unappealing as a way of commenting on his...

There can be many initial observations about Pirandello's short story. One such relevant musing could be on how advanced it is in terms of thematic development. Pirandello is ahead of his time in...