Short Comparative Between Two Short Stories: War by Luigi Pirandello and Family History by Jacques Prevert- Grade 10
Short Comparative Between Two Short Stories: War by Luigi Pirandello and Family History by Jacques Prevert
Both War by Luigi Pirandello and Family History by Jacques Prévert demonstrate that people may avoid the reality of tragedies that result from war in order to help themselves cope with the emotional impact. As “Human kind cannot bear very much reality,” (T.S. Elliot) one must face the harsh truths in life for one to truly understand and feel the tragic impact of war and death, no matter how devastating the situation may be. If one does not face the realities of life it can cause ones values or moral beliefs to become askew. Readers are given two different view points on this by the different characters of each story/poem. In War, the character referred to as the ‘fat man’ discusses the loss of a son at war and social responsibility versus personal sacrifice. In Family History, the characters’ values and morals are completely askew as the realities of a tragedy are never faced. Different views on this can be expressed through the similarities. In the beginning of Pirandello’s War, the fat man disregards the other travellers’ states of distress and readers are able to notice a flaw in his values as he mentions that it is a natural thing for a son to love his country more than his parents and die for the country stating, “Now, if one dies young and happy, without having the ugly sides of life, the boredom of it, the pettiness, the bitterness of disillusion…what more can we ask for him? Everyone should stop crying; everyone should laugh as I do…or at least thank God—as I do—because my son, before dying, sent me a message saying that he was dying satisfied at having ended his life in the best way he could have wished. That is why, as you see, I do not even wear mourning…” (Pirandello, 69). The fat-mans values have totally become askew as he does not face the reality of the situation. One can notice that this is an unnatural thing as parents’
Both War by Luigi Pirandello and Family History by Jacques Prévert demonstrate that people may avoid the reality of tragedies that result from war in order to help themselves cope with the emotional impact. As “Human kind cannot bear very much reality,” (T.S. Elliot) one must face the harsh truths in life for one to truly understand and feel the tragic impact of war and death, no matter how devastating the situation may be. If one does not face the realities of life it can cause ones values or moral beliefs to become askew. Readers are given two different view points on this by the different characters of each story/poem. In War, the character referred to as the ‘fat man’ discusses the loss of a son at war and social responsibility versus personal sacrifice. In Family History, the characters’ values and morals are completely askew as the realities of a tragedy are never faced. Different views on this can be expressed through the similarities. In the beginning of Pirandello’s War, the fat man disregards the other travellers’ states of distress and readers are able to notice a flaw in his values as he mentions that it is a natural thing for a son to love his country more than his parents and die for the country stating, “Now, if one dies young and happy, without having the ugly sides of life, the boredom of it, the pettiness, the bitterness of disillusion…what more can we ask for him? Everyone should stop crying; everyone should laugh as I do…or at least thank God—as I do—because my son, before dying, sent me a message saying that he was dying satisfied at having ended his life in the best way he could have wished. That is why, as you see, I do not even wear mourning…” (Pirandello, 69). The fat-mans values have totally become askew as he does not face the reality of the situation. One can notice that this is an unnatural thing as parents’