The World Has Moved On

Sean Gaboury

It would be naive of me to write this in the context of war as a whole, since the dawn of organized communities also brought about the concept of warring. But as a modern western world, more civilized per se, we brought about an era of what could be considered relative peace compared to centuries prior. Before the advent of such common reasons to travel abroad whether on business or for pleasure, most people only visited a new country if they were being shipped out for a military conflict. As this continued, soldiers began to learn and adopt the customs and language of other soldiers from other countries, whether it be allies or the enemy. These were the frontiersmen, and no matter how important or useful anyone back home was, they couldn't experience this new culture.

When the group is at camp in the middle of Richard Bausch's Peace, Mario introduces his father to the group. His father is a large, muscular man with hands that displayed his likely hard-working life back home. Despite the physical attributes, his father Giuseppe still feels inadequate. Upon his introduction,
"He said something to Marson in Italian, glanced at Mario, and then back at Marson. 'Per favore,' he said.
'I'm sorry,' Marson told him. 'Non parlo italiano.'
'This is my father,' Mario said. 'He's embarrassed by his English, so he speaks Italian to you.'"(90)
I find it interesting that a man that is surely a highly contributing man of his community can still be embarrassed about this cultural divide. This gives the impression that the generation of young men who are fighting in this World War are those of a new generation of bonds between countries. With the relative peace-time that men such as Giuseppe had encountered, and his country basically switching sides between Great Wars, his generation didn't truly have the chance of connecting to others like World War II had allowed. Giuseppe aspires to be like these young men.

While commerce and trade after the war ended exploded within counties involved in the conflict, the spread of influence of not only the victors but the reciprocation of the less fortunate changed the western landscape, with relations between America and Europe at a new high. These soldiers, and this war changed how countries communicate, and soon English spread as a second language to many European countries and even Japan. In the modern world, commerce directs the flow of country connections and communications, but the true communication was brought by war.