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War
11 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1967
9 people are currently reading
117 people want to read
About the author
Luigi Pirandello
1,479 books1,423 followersLuigi Pirandello; Agrigento (28 June 1867 – Rome 10 December 1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays.
He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art"
Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written in Sicilian. Pirandello's tragic farces are often seen as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd.
He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art"
Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written in Sicilian. Pirandello's tragic farces are often seen as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
October 14, 2018
- أنت على حق، أولادنا ليسوا ملكاً لنا، أولادنا ملكٌ للوطن
- ها، وهل نفكر فى الوطن عندما نهب أولادنا الحياة، إن أولادنا يولدون لأنهم يجب أن يولدوا، وعندما يخرجون للحياة يأخذون معهم حياتنا نحن، وهذه هى الحقيقة، نحن ملكٌ لهم وهم ليسوا ملكاً لنا، عندما يبلغ الواحد منهم العشرين من عمره يصبح مثلما كنا عليه فى سنه، كان لكل منا أب وكانت له أم ولكن إلى جانب ذلك كانت هناك أشياء كثيرة تملأ حياتنا البنات، والسجائر، والأفكار الخيالية، ربطات العنق الجديدة، والوطن طبعاً ، الوطن الذى كنا سنجيب نداؤه حتى لو اعترض الأب والأم، والآن ونحن فى هذه السن الكبيرة ، حبنا لوطننا كبير ولكن أكبر منه حبنا لأبناءنا، من منا لا يتمنى أن يأخذ مكان ابنه على الجبهة لو استطاع؟
الحب الوحيد فى هذه الذى ليس له بديل هو حب الأب والأم .. ليس بعد حبهما حب
القصة رائعة ومؤثرة وأعجبتنى بشدة حتى نهاية الفقرة المقتبسة أعلاه، ولكننى وجدت معارضة قوية فى نفسى لفلسفة ورؤية برانديللو فى تضحية ابن الرجل البدين بنفسه فى الحرب، لرغبة ابنه فى ذلك ولأنه لو كان فى سنه سيكون شغوفاً بالحرب والوطن أكثر من شغفه بالبقاء فى أحضان أمه وأبيه.
أمنيتى أن يعم هذا العالم السلام، ليس حباً فى السلام لأن معظمه كذب ونفاق ولكن كرهاً فى الحرب وتداعياتها وخسائرها.
- ها، وهل نفكر فى الوطن عندما نهب أولادنا الحياة، إن أولادنا يولدون لأنهم يجب أن يولدوا، وعندما يخرجون للحياة يأخذون معهم حياتنا نحن، وهذه هى الحقيقة، نحن ملكٌ لهم وهم ليسوا ملكاً لنا، عندما يبلغ الواحد منهم العشرين من عمره يصبح مثلما كنا عليه فى سنه، كان لكل منا أب وكانت له أم ولكن إلى جانب ذلك كانت هناك أشياء كثيرة تملأ حياتنا البنات، والسجائر، والأفكار الخيالية، ربطات العنق الجديدة، والوطن طبعاً ، الوطن الذى كنا سنجيب نداؤه حتى لو اعترض الأب والأم، والآن ونحن فى هذه السن الكبيرة ، حبنا لوطننا كبير ولكن أكبر منه حبنا لأبناءنا، من منا لا يتمنى أن يأخذ مكان ابنه على الجبهة لو استطاع؟
الحب الوحيد فى هذه الذى ليس له بديل هو حب الأب والأم .. ليس بعد حبهما حب
القصة رائعة ومؤثرة وأعجبتنى بشدة حتى نهاية الفقرة المقتبسة أعلاه، ولكننى وجدت معارضة قوية فى نفسى لفلسفة ورؤية برانديللو فى تضحية ابن الرجل البدين بنفسه فى الحرب، لرغبة ابنه فى ذلك ولأنه لو كان فى سنه سيكون شغوفاً بالحرب والوطن أكثر من شغفه بالبقاء فى أحضان أمه وأبيه.
أمنيتى أن يعم هذا العالم السلام، ليس حباً فى السلام لأن معظمه كذب ونفاق ولكن كرهاً فى الحرب وتداعياتها وخسائرها.
May 10, 2024
مکالمه والدینی که بچه هاشون به جنگ رفتند.
August 16, 2021
The conversation of parents on the train about their son who died on the battlefield.. One mother is so sad - has tried to be comforted by another passenger who pretends to be strong.. But actually he, the strong, was also fragile inside.
May 18, 2013
World war one rages on but Luigi Pirandello takes us not in the battlefield but on a train, with parents of soldiers as passengers.
A bulky woman is hoisted in, obviously in distress. She is grieving. Her husband who is with her explains that their only child, their son of twenty, is being sent out to the front in three days. Nothing has given her comfort. She knows no one, not even her husband, can understand her sorrow.
Another parent butts in, says they should consider themselves lucky, because his own son has been sent to the front three times already, after having come back twice, wounded. The husband of the woman in grief interjects that their case is different because their boy is an only child. Another parent says, however, that it makes no difference, because parents love each of their children completely. Back and forth the conversation goes until that long speech by a old, fat man, another father, who had already lost his son. This well-reasoned discourse stunned everyone for its freshness, insights and persuasiveness anchored on the love for one's country and the need for parents to respect their children's decision to sacrifice for it.
It was here when, like a great movie director, Luigi Pirandello focused his camera to the inconsolable mother--
"...She suddenly realized that it wasn't the others who were wrong and could not understand her but herself who could not rise up to the same height of those fathers and mothers willing to resign themselves, without crying, not only to the departure of their sons but even to their death.
"She lifted her head, she bent over from her corner trying to listen with great attention to the details which the fat man was giving to his companions about the way his son had fallen as a hero, for his King and his country, happy and without regrets. It seemed to her that she had stumbled into a world she had never dreamt of, a world so far unknown to her and she was so pleased to hear everyone joining in congratulating that brave father who could so stoically speak of his child's death.
"Then suddenly, just as if she had heard nothing of what had been said and almost as if waking up from a dream, she turned to the old man, asking him:
"'Then...is your son really dead?'
"Everybody stared at her. That old man, too, turned to look at her, fixing his great, bulging, horribly watery light grey eyes, deep in her face. For some little time he tried to answer, but words failed him. He looked and looked at her, almost as if only then--at that silly, incongruous question--he had suddenly realized at last that his son was really dead...gone for ever...for ever. His face contracted, became horribly distorted, then he snatched in haste a handkerchief from his pocket and, to the amazement of everyone, broke into harrowing, heart-rending, uncontrollable sobs."
January 7, 2023
الحرب لا تجلب وروداً 🌹 بل تزرع 😢دموعاً
فالأبناء يموتون و الأباء ينتحبون
و الوطن يعني الحياة لا الموت
✔من قصص بيرانديللو المعبرة✔
November 15, 2018
قصيرة معبرة ❤
June 17, 2023
چهقدر قابللمس... چهقدر غمانگیز.
September 24, 2018
الحرب
حيث الموت يفقد هيبته
و الحزن يفقد تأثيره في النفوس
لوهلة ما قد بيدو الأمر جيداً
لكن عدم الشعور برهبة الموت و ثُقل الحزن و كآبته يورث البلادة في القلب
ومتى إستأنسنا البلادة ....أضعنا أنسانيتنا و قفدنا هويتنا البشرية
حيث الموت يفقد هيبته
و الحزن يفقد تأثيره في النفوس
لوهلة ما قد بيدو الأمر جيداً
لكن عدم الشعور برهبة الموت و ثُقل الحزن و كآبته يورث البلادة في القلب
ومتى إستأنسنا البلادة ....أضعنا أنسانيتنا و قفدنا هويتنا البشرية
August 2, 2023
اینم که جزو درسمون بود ...واقعا ناراحت کننده بود و چهره واقعی جنگ رو نشون میداد .
May 25, 2025
- پس، پسرتون واقعا مرده؟..
June 2, 2022
beautifully written and thought-provoking
June 15, 2013
Nostalgic and deeply poignant , based on a theme that has always astounded and shocked with the universal tendency of mankind to resort to it , inextricably coupled with the senseless tragedies following it , "War" deftly drives home the point of the humongous magnitude and above all , the meaninglessness of the countless tragedies and casualties of war . I had first read the story when I was 14 , as a part of my school syllabus , but the poignancy hits you every time you return to it .
June 7, 2016
يأخذنا لويجي إلى الحرب العالمية الأولى في 4 صفحات ويسمعنا إلى حوار أهالي الجنود الجالسين في مقصورة درجة ثانية في قطار , ليطرق على أذهاننا السؤال الذهبي الموافق لكل العصور
من أهم الإنسان أم الوطن ؟
فيجيب الذكي " الإنسان بالطبع" أما المغفل فيقول " الوطن .. الوطن والملك "
من أهم الإنسان أم الوطن ؟
فيجيب الذكي " الإنسان بالطبع" أما المغفل فيقول " الوطن .. الوطن والملك "
November 24, 2019
In his short story War, Luigi Pirandello, represents a notion of patriotism in a war time, introduces it as a vital existence that, despite of having an ugly horrible side, is a necessity that cannot be neglected or forgotten. The characters in War are nameless, usually distinguished by their appearance; and their homeland is simply called "the country". Pirandello never hints at any specific nationality or time throughout the story. His story is a tale that can happen anytime anywhere in this world. He only gives us a general sense of what patriotism may mean and why it is important. "If Country exists, if Country is a natural necessity, like bread, of which each of us must eat in order not to die of hunger, somebody must go to defend it."
The characters are all gathered "in a stuffy and smoky second-class carriage" which indicates that they belong to the working or the middle class and, therefore, make up the majority of their society. And it is the presence of the majority and their willingness to sacrifice that allows patriotism to continue to exist and preserve its meaning. And we can see that all of the characters, who are the parents who had to send off their children to the front to fight for the country, are at different stages of dealing with the sacrifice they have to make in order to protect their homeland. The husband and the wife are just about to say their final goodbye to their only son who is soon to be sent to the front and feel that patriotism is a burden just for them to bear on their shoulders and especially the wife is not willing to sacrifice anything for it. Two other characters who even don't have any physical shapes and are put in the story to represent the position of those who already have someone in the war and live in fear of losing him; And finally the "fat, red faced man" who has made his sacrifice for the cause by losing his son.
The fat, red faced man seems to be the only one who has fully embraced the devotion to patriotism or at least pretends to do so. The way he talks about death of the young men in the war resembles of propaganda used by governments to persuade their citizens to devote themselves to a cause; when words are soften and euphemism is used to hide and justify the horrible sides of a war, "Our sons go, when they are twenty, and they don't want tears, because if they die, they die inflamed and happy. And if one dies young and happy, without having the ugly sides of life, the boredom of if, 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 … ." But he doesn't look positive about his own words when after finishing his speech his eyes are "watery and motionless" and his "shrill laugh" sounds like to be a sob.
He tries so hard to deny the double face of patriotism that the war has forced on him. He and the wife kind of represent this duality; the fat man tries so hard to ignore his grief and the unpleasant side of his sacrifice by glorifying what must be done for sake of the country whereas the wife only concentrates on her own personal internal fear and pain and does not want to understand the reason the sacrifice must be made. And these two push each other to the other edge at which each of them refuses to take a look. For the wife is when she is highly affected by the fat man's words and feels like she has "stumbled into a world she had never dreamed of, a world so unknown to her", A world in which a father can "so stoically speak of his child's death." And in the fat man's case is when he finally allows himself to grieve over his deceased son by breaking into "harrowing, heart-rending, uncontrollable sobs" after the wife asks him, "then … is your son really dead?" He puts himself in the vulnerable position we first see the wife at the beginning of the story. And this duality is the picture Pirandello wants to depict of patriotism; sometimes painful but necessary.
The characters are all gathered "in a stuffy and smoky second-class carriage" which indicates that they belong to the working or the middle class and, therefore, make up the majority of their society. And it is the presence of the majority and their willingness to sacrifice that allows patriotism to continue to exist and preserve its meaning. And we can see that all of the characters, who are the parents who had to send off their children to the front to fight for the country, are at different stages of dealing with the sacrifice they have to make in order to protect their homeland. The husband and the wife are just about to say their final goodbye to their only son who is soon to be sent to the front and feel that patriotism is a burden just for them to bear on their shoulders and especially the wife is not willing to sacrifice anything for it. Two other characters who even don't have any physical shapes and are put in the story to represent the position of those who already have someone in the war and live in fear of losing him; And finally the "fat, red faced man" who has made his sacrifice for the cause by losing his son.
The fat, red faced man seems to be the only one who has fully embraced the devotion to patriotism or at least pretends to do so. The way he talks about death of the young men in the war resembles of propaganda used by governments to persuade their citizens to devote themselves to a cause; when words are soften and euphemism is used to hide and justify the horrible sides of a war, "Our sons go, when they are twenty, and they don't want tears, because if they die, they die inflamed and happy. And if one dies young and happy, without having the ugly sides of life, the boredom of if, 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 … ." But he doesn't look positive about his own words when after finishing his speech his eyes are "watery and motionless" and his "shrill laugh" sounds like to be a sob.
He tries so hard to deny the double face of patriotism that the war has forced on him. He and the wife kind of represent this duality; the fat man tries so hard to ignore his grief and the unpleasant side of his sacrifice by glorifying what must be done for sake of the country whereas the wife only concentrates on her own personal internal fear and pain and does not want to understand the reason the sacrifice must be made. And these two push each other to the other edge at which each of them refuses to take a look. For the wife is when she is highly affected by the fat man's words and feels like she has "stumbled into a world she had never dreamed of, a world so unknown to her", A world in which a father can "so stoically speak of his child's death." And in the fat man's case is when he finally allows himself to grieve over his deceased son by breaking into "harrowing, heart-rending, uncontrollable sobs" after the wife asks him, "then … is your son really dead?" He puts himself in the vulnerable position we first see the wife at the beginning of the story. And this duality is the picture Pirandello wants to depict of patriotism; sometimes painful but necessary.
December 16, 2018
War by Luigi Pirandello Review
The short story 'War' was written by an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet and short story writer Luigi Pirandello. He was awarded in 1934 by the Nobel Prize in Literature for his contribution to the genre of drama.
The story represents also this genre. In a very short size, the author expressed the feelings of parents who are losing their sons in the war. The plot of the story was built on the conversation which the passengers of the train (the parent of the soldiers) had.
They argued about the attitude of children to parents and parents to children. One passenger expressed his vision of relationships:
"We belong to them but they never belong to us. And when they reach twenty they are exactly what we were at their age. We too had a father and mother, but there were so many other things as well...girls, cigarettes, illusions, new ties...and the Country ..."
The story has a dramatic, tragic ending when the woman, who was desperately worried about her son, asked the man, who expressed patriotic ideas,"... is your son really dead?". The last sentence of the story revealed his sincere feelings, "His face contracted, became horribly distorted, then he snatched in haste a handkerchief from his pocket and, to the amazement of everyone, broke into harrowing, heart-breaking, uncontrollable sobs."
This is a link to the text of the story:
http://mscurlettsclassroom.weebly.com...
The short story 'War' was written by an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet and short story writer Luigi Pirandello. He was awarded in 1934 by the Nobel Prize in Literature for his contribution to the genre of drama.
The story represents also this genre. In a very short size, the author expressed the feelings of parents who are losing their sons in the war. The plot of the story was built on the conversation which the passengers of the train (the parent of the soldiers) had.
They argued about the attitude of children to parents and parents to children. One passenger expressed his vision of relationships:
"We belong to them but they never belong to us. And when they reach twenty they are exactly what we were at their age. We too had a father and mother, but there were so many other things as well...girls, cigarettes, illusions, new ties...and the Country ..."
The story has a dramatic, tragic ending when the woman, who was desperately worried about her son, asked the man, who expressed patriotic ideas,"... is your son really dead?". The last sentence of the story revealed his sincere feelings, "His face contracted, became horribly distorted, then he snatched in haste a handkerchief from his pocket and, to the amazement of everyone, broke into harrowing, heart-breaking, uncontrollable sobs."
This is a link to the text of the story:
http://mscurlettsclassroom.weebly.com...
June 20, 2019
This is barely 10 page story which takes us at the heart of the battle but from a different perspective, more so to the background. It shows us what happen to the people who have to sacrifice their family members and in those days in the name love for the country.
It was intriguing to read the debate between the old people in the carriage. A child or multiple children, A loss is a loss,but it felt like the author was subtly challenging the reader's thinking regarding loss or questioning their perspective of how they perceive it.
We get to see diffirent people with different thoughts and variety of coping mechanisms,how they deal with loss and about to lose. The idea of giving their children to a war despite the parents working for them to have steady future and longer life only to be told fight in the battle where there life is not guaranteed.
This book is a very good work of emotional turmoil and ideology. A great character study,It's filled with worthy analytical topics to debate and ponder over.
It was intriguing to read the debate between the old people in the carriage. A child or multiple children, A loss is a loss,but it felt like the author was subtly challenging the reader's thinking regarding loss or questioning their perspective of how they perceive it.
We get to see diffirent people with different thoughts and variety of coping mechanisms,how they deal with loss and about to lose. The idea of giving their children to a war despite the parents working for them to have steady future and longer life only to be told fight in the battle where there life is not guaranteed.
This book is a very good work of emotional turmoil and ideology. A great character study,It's filled with worthy analytical topics to debate and ponder over.
January 8, 2019
This is a short story about the consequences of war from the viewpoints of those who have to fight them on a different front: the young soldiers' parents, who have birthed and raised their sons only to watch them go off to fight on the frontlines. The story also deals with grief and the many ways it is displayed from person to person. Doesn't dive into the characters too much; they are just the sums of their dialogue, but it's a quick snapshot of consequences, familial love, and grief.
September 23, 2020
Wow, I'm amazed of how deeply ironic this one is!
December 11, 2020
What a pain !!!
December 31, 2022
Not amazing, but certainly moving.
March 9, 2024
Loved the part where the gaslighting just didn't work. They sincerely tried to gaslight themselves and each other but even THEY know there is no justification for war.
Read
October 4, 2024#read for the class
I got the point but still it seemed a bit cliched to me.
I got the point but still it seemed a bit cliched to me.
February 5, 2017
"Then... is your son really dead?"
old man be like:
In the story, we will see five parents of the children that are off to war in a second-class express train. At first, they were pleasantly sharing to each other their children's situation, but ended up having a contest: which parent suffers the most, kinda.
There was this one couple, they were promised that in at least six months, their only son won't be sent to the front row. Now the wife is mourning, and sobbing while her husband explained to the other passengers why her state is like that. One lady passenger bickered that the couple ought to be thankful that it was their son's first time, considering her son was sent back and forth, even though her son was already wounded.
Another passenger argued that his two sons and three nephews are at the front, claiming that, "parental love is not like bread that can be broken to pieces and split among the children in equal shares." Basically, passenger #4 is saying that he's not suffering half for each of his child but double of the amount.
Yet then we will see a fat traveler, who indicates that "children" aren't a property of parents, and that they shouldn't be treated as such. The lady passenger agreed to the fat traveler and tells that the children belong to the country. Her statement was met with a bitter remark by the fat traveler, contradicting that they, parents, belong to their children but their children don't belong to them and that the children have their own minds. We later know that the fat traveler's son is already dead and this man was proud of his son's death because he died honorably. Everyone agreed to the fat traveler's words, but then the quiet wife suddenly asks the fat traveler, "is your son really dead?"
The fat traveler broke into sobs, finally realizing his loss, that his son is really dead.
My reaction:
old man be like:
In the story, we will see five parents of the children that are off to war in a second-class express train. At first, they were pleasantly sharing to each other their children's situation, but ended up having a contest: which parent suffers the most, kinda.
There was this one couple, they were promised that in at least six months, their only son won't be sent to the front row. Now the wife is mourning, and sobbing while her husband explained to the other passengers why her state is like that. One lady passenger bickered that the couple ought to be thankful that it was their son's first time, considering her son was sent back and forth, even though her son was already wounded.
Another passenger argued that his two sons and three nephews are at the front, claiming that, "parental love is not like bread that can be broken to pieces and split among the children in equal shares." Basically, passenger #4 is saying that he's not suffering half for each of his child but double of the amount.
Yet then we will see a fat traveler, who indicates that "children" aren't a property of parents, and that they shouldn't be treated as such. The lady passenger agreed to the fat traveler and tells that the children belong to the country. Her statement was met with a bitter remark by the fat traveler, contradicting that they, parents, belong to their children but their children don't belong to them and that the children have their own minds. We later know that the fat traveler's son is already dead and this man was proud of his son's death because he died honorably. Everyone agreed to the fat traveler's words, but then the quiet wife suddenly asks the fat traveler, "is your son really dead?"
The fat traveler broke into sobs, finally realizing his loss, that his son is really dead.
My reaction:
June 7, 2016
هي قصة قصيرة مؤلفة من ثلاثة صفحات ... حملت رغم قصرها مآسي الحرب من خلال 7 شخصيات تتحاور في مقطورة عن ماهية الموت في الحرب ... تبريرات لقساوة الحرب ... تبريرات لخسارة الأبناء ... حجج وأعذار ... وفي النهاية في سطرين يعود القارئ لينصدم بتلك القدرة الهائلة التي لدى الإنسان ليضحك على نفسه ويتابع السير قدماً ويواجه فكرة فقد أحدهم للأبد ... ويعود إلى الواقع المشوه والقسوة اللامتناهية لأي حرب... أعجبتني فكرة أخرى وهي قدرة أي انسان فينا على المزاودة على غيره ممن يشاركونه ذات المعاناة وذلك يثبت عدم قبولنا التعاطف مع غيرنا ممن يعانون ورغبتنا في اثبات أن مصابنا أكبر ... دائماً أكبر ... وبذات الأسلوب في النهاية وفي آخر مقطعين نعود لنرى هذا الواقع ونفهم أننا لسنا بحاجة للمغالاة بأية مصيبة ... فالواقع الذي لطالما أعمينا أعيننا عن رؤيته سيبقى موجوداً بقسوة ...
قراءة ممتعة <3
قراءة ممتعة <3
September 13, 2014
Woah! Good! I kinda got goosebumps when I read the end. I was lost in the characters. It's good.
August 26, 2013
Very realistic and I like the way the story ended.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews