Themes and message

The main themes of the short story “The Raft” by Peter Orner are the gap between generations and the effects of war on soldiers’ perspective. The author tries to show how war makes people adjust their actions and behavior to extreme circumstances, but also how the experience of war is very hard to understand by younger generations who have not been exposed to it directly.

The gap between generations

The generational gap is a concept which refers to the different and often conflicting perspectives on life (and its multiple aspects) between older and younger generations. Usually, the same issue or aspect of life comes to be judged and perceived differently by people from different generations, because each generation has been shaped by a different socio-cultural context. 

In the short story, this theme is explored through the grandfather and the grandson, as well as through the way the grandfather depicts his son’s generation.

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Effects of war

The effects of war are explored more subtly by the author in the short story, through the grandfather’s attitude to war and present generations.

First of all, the fact that the grandfather tells the same story due to short term memory loss suggests that he might have been traumatized by what happened in South Pacific in World War II, by the fact that he took the decision...

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