Student Question
What is the main theme of the story and the writer's intended message?
Quick answer:
The main theme of the story is the futility of war, especially in modern times where traditional justifications for war no longer hold. The writer, Pirandello, illustrates this through characters who struggle to genuinely support the war effort. Even the most pro-war character ultimately reveals insincerity in his enthusiasm. The devastating human cost of World War I underscores the message that fighting for abstract ideals like god or country now seems meaningless.
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 pointlessness of war by the way in which the characters try to show enthusiasm about the war but are unable to. We see at the end of the story that even the man who was most pro-war didn't really mean it.
War is so terrible (WWI was a war that was much worse in terms of human cost than anything that went before) that the idea of going to war for your god or your country seems pointless now.
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