The Wars Robert's struggle

In the book The Wars, by Timothy Findley, asserting maleness is a big deal. Men aren't supposed to do what is feminine. Through the many incidents in the novel, maleness is most emphasized on, reason being of the war in the novel, all these men have to act like "tough guys" because their sensitivity will be discriminated. There are three such incidents in the novel that shows the importance of maleness. The scene with the …

…that other people won't judge him, like in the scene of the horse. Then maleness wasn't asserted anymore in the middle of the war, because of their fear. This novel is a novel of masculinity and how it doesn't have to be abused or used all the time, at least that's my interpretation. Asserting maleness is the most emphasized in the novel because of the war and maybe because of the homosexuality of the author.