CELIA MARIA ARNS.pdf - Universidade Federal do Paraná

In fact, a war causes fundamental changes in
the political structures of a society. Thucydides gives
us his testimony that the communities of his time were
also affected by the psychological postwar phenomenon
of exhaustion and fatigue which bring about political
changes. Richardson, who served in the U.S. Army in
Frankfurt and Paris 11 , is, like Thucydides, a direct
witness of the effects of war on people - the postwar
frustration generates essential alterations in the
political-religious and social structures of a nation:
...Agamemnon's returning soldier s have spent their ideal-
ism and their craving for heroic deeds on the battle-
field and now dream of the quiet pleasures of home
and conjugal life... 12 .
In The Prodigal:
First Soldier:
...We know you can never rest for long. Soon
you'd be calling on us again to set off
after you and telling us we're being men when
we threw ourselves into another fight. No,
Agamemnon, we're tired of that life.
Second Soldier:
We're tired of being strangers to our own
homes, of having to struggle to recognise
our children. I've spent twenty good years
in your army, and all I'm left with now is
fear that it's meant nothing, 13
In Thucydides:
Even after the Trojan war, Hellas was still
engaged in removing and settling, and thus
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