The Horses hold which Robert was appointed to “was one of horror…alive with flies” which paralleled the soldiers and reveled the connection between the way the men were crowded in their barracks without privacy and the horses in their hold with their urine and “manure left where it fell for days on end”. Everyone suffered from headaches” and people like Harris got sick. “Latrines and showers were virtually open forums where privacy was unheard of…tremendous heat from the boilers drew off oxygen. Within the novel, horses became a metaphoric characteristic for soldiers like Robert whom were treated sub-humanly and this could be seen during the ship ride as the men had their privacy stripped away from them and were no more than animals. Looking at Robert in a physical sense, he has many characteristic similarities that could be associated with the horses and that is being strong and athletic.

To begin with, Robert’s deep connection which parallels and reveals his individuality can be seen through the horses, rabbits and the coyote. In Timothy Findley’s The War, the existence and lives of animals is used to reveal and parallel Robert’s individuality, foretell situations that he will find himself in, and symbolize a ray of hope amidst the war. The sufficient use of animal imagery in The Wars by Timothy Findley is used to characterize and explore the theme of the protagonist Robert Ross, a nineteen year old soldier, whose love and connection for animals is explored and revealed through the characterization of a third person’s point of view.