Birdsong by Stephen Faulks is a novel to show the effect war has on a person who served in battle and the importance to understand the history of war for those who wish to learn about the past. This novel is about the Great War and its impact it had on the life of Stephen Wraysford, the protagonist of the novel, and his granddaughter Elizabeth Benson. Stephen had an affair with a woman named Isabelle Azaire who ends up getting pregnant and wasn 't sure about the feelings for Stephen so she left him. Later she left him leaving him with many confusing emotions, he decides to stay in france and when the war starts he was almost pleased that he can channel his confusing emotions on the war but the war was not what he expected. Stephen joined the war and fought the Germans and saw terrible things in the war that changed his life forever, wishing to die at times, the war changed all of his confusing emotions into rage. His friends on the line with him, which he got to know throughout the war, started to pass one by one which took a toll on Stephen "Bodies were starting to pile and clog the progress." He was angry, afraid and he even had his body discarded as a corpse. In 1910, Stephen was sent to learn about the textile factory in Amiens with Isabelle and her husband. Stephen falls for Isabelle and she does the same, so they ran away together living in a house in St.-Remy-de-Provence. They were happy until Isabelle got pregnant which Stephen is unaware of and she fled back to her home with her family. In 1916 Stephen was a lieutenant in the Great War in France, he refused every offer to leave even after he almost dies. Stephen 's platoon was ordered to attack a place at Hawthorne Ridge, many of the soldiers wrote to their families because they didn’t think the attack was going to be successful and they knew they weren’t going to get out of their alive. Stephen
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She agrees to take him to Isabelle, her face was disfigured by a bomb during an attack. Stephen and Isabelle saw each other for the first time in a long time, she started talking about a relationship with her and a German soldier named Max. She decides not to tell him about the child they share together because she is a afraid it will complicate things with them. At the end of his leave in Amiens, he was relieved to go back and see his friends again, but he was unaware of his friend Weir had been shot by a German Sniper, he cried and as very depressed for a while. While in France in 1918, Stephan and his close friend and fellow soldier Jack Firebrace were stretching a tunnel when there was an enemy explosion trapping them both with no way out. They were in the tunnel for a long time, thinking that they were going to die trapped in the tunnel. Close to the end, Jack tells Stephen about his son, John, who had passed away, the story touched Stephen and he promised if he got out of there alive he was going to name his son John, in honor of Jack. Jack died in the tunnel, leaving Stephen alone, trapped, German Lieutenant Levi ends up finding Stephen and he returns to the english
She agrees to take him to Isabelle, her face was disfigured by a bomb during an attack. Stephen and Isabelle saw each other for the first time in a long time, she started talking about a relationship with her and a German soldier named Max. She decides not to tell him about the child they share together because she is a afraid it will complicate things with them. At the end of his leave in Amiens, he was relieved to go back and see his friends again, but he was unaware of his friend Weir had been shot by a German Sniper, he cried and as very depressed for a while. While in France in 1918, Stephan and his close friend and fellow soldier Jack Firebrace were stretching a tunnel when there was an enemy explosion trapping them both with no way out. They were in the tunnel for a long time, thinking that they were going to die trapped in the tunnel. Close to the end, Jack tells Stephen about his son, John, who had passed away, the story touched Stephen and he promised if he got out of there alive he was going to name his son John, in honor of Jack. Jack died in the tunnel, leaving Stephen alone, trapped, German Lieutenant Levi ends up finding Stephen and he returns to the english