The war had made a man of him! It had coarsened him and hardened him. There was no other way to look at it. It had made him reach a point at which he would no longer stand unbearable things.
Interpretation
The quote reflects how war transforms a person, making them more resilient and less tolerant of suffering.
In this quote, Ford Madox Ford highlights the profound impact that war has on an individual, suggesting that it strips away innocence and fosters a hardened demeanor. The character described has reached a stage where their experiences in battle have shaped their identity, instilling a sense of strength and resolve that cannot overlook the harsh realities of life.
In practice
Use this quote during a speech about the impacts of war on soldiers.
Mind, I am not preaching anything contrary to accepted morality. I am not advocating free love in this or any other case. Society must go on, I suppose, and society can only exist if the normal, if the virtuous, and the slightly deceitful flourish, and if the passionate, the headstrong, and the too-truthful are condemned to suicide and madness.
There is no man who loves a woman that does not desire to come to her for the renewal of his courage, for the cutting asunder of his difficulties. And that will be the mainspring of his desire for her. We are all so afraid, we are all so alone, we all so need from the outside the assurance of our own worthiness to exist.
You have to wait together - for a week, for a year, for a lifetime, before the final intimate conversation may be attained ... and exhausted. So that ... That in effect was love.
Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.
It is not merely that people must die and people must suffer, if not here, then there. But what is dreadful is that the world goes on and people go on being stupidly cruel - in the old ways and all the time.
The first thing you have to consider when writing a novel is your story, and then your story - and then your story!
You will have to make up for the smallness of your size by your courage and selfless devotion to duty, for it is not life that matters, but the courage, fortitude and determination you bring to it.
I never had that feeling that I had to carry the weight of somebody's ignorance around with me. And that was true for racists who wanted to use the 'n' word when talking about me or about my people, or the stupidity of people who really wanted to belittle other folks because they weren't pretty or they weren't rich or they weren't clever.
It is a good face. I am glad this war is over at last.
The motto of all the mongoose family is, "Run and find out," and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose.
I speak for those children who cannot speak for themselves, children who have absolutely nothing but their courage and their smiles, their wits and their dreams.
Around us there is the presence of evil. The devil is at work. But in a loud voice I say: GOD IS STRONGER.
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