War
by Luigi Pirandello
"War” is a short story about parents of children who are going off to war, each of them coping with it i different ways. It focuses on the tragic repercussions that World War I had on thousands of families. In “War”, Luigi Pirandello uses ironic characterization to teach us a theme about love and death.
In the story, Pirandello uses ironic characterization to describe the main female passenger and the fat man. For example, on page 864, one of the passengers says, “You may spoil your only son by excessive attentions, but you cannot love him more than you would all your other children if you had any” (Pirandello 864). The other passengers on the train try to rationalize death, end up learning a lesson. They are seen as the “smart people” and try to seem as if they know that they are right. Another example is when the main female passenger asks, “Then...is your son really dead?” (Pirandello 866). Throughout the story, this
woman is seen as
simple or stupid and she is described as a “shapeless bundle,” and is compared to a wild animal on
page 864-865. It is
ironic that this
woman, who is
indirectly, described as stupid and as a wild animal, is the one who teaches everyone a lesson.
By asking this
simple question, she brings the fat man to tears with the realization that his son is gone forever.