Analyse Faulks presentation if friendships and love...

Analyse Faulks’ presentation of friendships and love affairs in Birdsong, showing which relationships and love affairs had the greatest impact on your understanding of the novel. One of the most significant relationships, if not the most, is the friendship between Jack Firebrace and the main character, Stephen Wraysford. This is because Jack remains a constant in Stephen’s war life which contrasts with all the other relationships with the men Stephen makes as he suffered the loss of many of them. The first time Jack and Stephen meet is also the first time the reader sees Stephen in the war. Stephen is described as having a ‘cold’ voice which contrast to how compassionate the reader has seen him with Isabelle. This is significant as the†¦show more content†¦The structure of Part 2, 4 and 6 was interesting as most of the chapters begin in Jack’s point of view of Stephen which is a narrative technique Faulks has used to show the relationship being conjured and that the lives of these two men are bound. Jack’s admiration for Stephen is further shown on page 372 where he cannot remember what his son, John’s, face s o he has ‘taken to drawing Stephen instead’ which also shows his importance in his life. After Michael Weir’s death he and Stephen become closer, as one relationship breaks down another solidifies as they have both lost so many people so they gravitate towards each other. When Stephen and Jack are the only ones to survive a blast underground Jack shows he feels guilty when he says ‘The one supposed to get you back safe’ he feels he has doomed Stephen by escorting him underground. On page 451 their relationship has come so far they abandon the hierarchy and Jack starts to call him Stephen. This links back to Part 2 where ‘they were allowed to speak without deference to the officers’ while they were underground to help cope with how difficult the conditions were, Stephen and Jack are just two human beings trying to survive, the side of the war you are on doesn’t matter underground when you have ‘several hundred thousand tons o f France above’ your head. When Jack dies moments after they hear a ‘rescue party’ Stephen feels ‘bitterly alone’ as he was powerless to stop Jack’s death and now has no