the effects the ongoing effects on the soldiers
For some men the hardest adjustments were those of the mind. In the cities there was an upsurge of violence and drunkenness in 1919 [...] Men [...] were trying to forget, to blot out the gruesome sights and the waste of a horrible past. |
After the signing of the Armistice peace treaty in France, the war had finally come to an end with many people rejoicing and celebrating that four years of gruesome conflict had finally to an end. However, the war had left psychological scars on the surviving soldiers that have traumatised that for the rest of their lives. This was known as Post-Tramatic Stress Disorder but nicknamed, Shell-Shock. This disorder is the result of the many terrifying experiences on the front line such as killing or witnessing the death of mate right in front of you (TV Tropes Foundation, LLC, 2014). Other impacts that soldiers had to deal with were their physical deformities (i.e. leg amputated), blindness due to poisonous gases, deafness from artillery fire and mental illness (Bourke, 2014). Soldiers that developed these stressful disorders were often very hard to cure no matter how many hours of therapy have already taken place. This meant that these men were no longer employable, mental and physically unstable to re-join the army and their lifestyle with family would forever be different (Duffy, Encyclopedia - Shell Shock, 2009).
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Families back in Australia
Most men went to war during World War One, which had a very big impact on the families left back at home. Most men had gone so the women and children had to fill in their duties, this put a lot of pressure on the older siblings because they had to take care of the household duties and any younger children. If the men came back from the war (which lots of them didn't), they were suffering from serious injuries and painful blisters swelling on their skin from the mustard gas. The mustard gas also started to occur swelling in the men’s throats, which led to eventually sealing your airway. The men usually were too tormented to talk about their experiences, which made the younger kids worried and confused about going up to their father because they didn't know what had happened to him. This put strain on the mothers to raise the children
on their own. However with their fathers absent from their life, this could
cause them to rebel against their mothers (Boys) since they knew that their
fathers were originally the bread winner of the family (Craddick-Adam, 2004).