Robert Ross Project
After our group has fashioned Ross, our group has came up with a synthesis of what Findley wants us to understand about Ross as a character, the war and its effects on people in general through thel life size silhouette of Robert Ross. We portrayed Robert in a kneeling position as an intimate gesture of humble respect, emotions such as sincerity, remorse and also to associate him with reverence, submission. This renders a person defensless and unable to flee, just how the wars rendered the soldiers lives and the inevitable effects on the homefront. In contrast, Ross is also portrayed as freeing a mouse creature as a sign of a compassionate or affection gesture in which he believed that "if you couldn't save people, but you could save the horses. You were, infact saving life." this is his statement about life, life in which the whole point that life itself is the embodiment of hope. This gesture characterizes him as selfess, deeply empathetic philanthropist who was a kinship with all animals. In addition, this also shows how he encounters great horrors on the front that affect him greatly such as the dead soldiers in the background, but do not change his kind disposition. Although by the end of the novel, he has lost a great deal of faith in the world and humanity, what is significant is that he hasn't lost all of it which is depicted by his gesture of animals. The mouse is the symbol for purity while the bush is freedom and protection, but also of death, of the innocence that cannot survive or must be sacrificed. The birds that fly free in the sky also feed on the bodies of dead soldiers. The bland colors used on the poster symbolizes the element of earth which represents both the cold and dry traits on the front the war was fought on and is associated with the melancholic or depressed trait seen in people. The pistol robert carries symbolizes authority and security, protection from what may harm him. The fire in the war is a symbol both of passion and