On War by Luigi Pirandello

This story is a classic example of why a strong title can make a story flow perfectly. The internal conflict of the mother who lost her only son to the Country juxtaposed with the "fat man with bad teeth's " realization that his son is in fact dead was established perfectly through the title. Both characters were experiencing an internal war from the lost of their sons. It was interesting to see the characterization of both the man with the bad teeth and the woman who sat quietly in the corner listening because their common connection was their pain. Each of the other characters were in a sense disillusioned by pride of winning an argument of who had the most love for their son, and not displaying hurt and pain. The man and women, however were speaking from a place of pain, and were the only ones who would allow themselves to be vulnerable enough to publicly display that pain. The ending really struck me as powerful because of the agency that Priandello allowed the woman to have. He wrote this piece in 1934, a time period where women were not really allowed to speak out, let alone bring a man to tears.