 Literary scholars Cristina Pividori, Wyatt Bonikowski and Steve Pinkerton all seek to challenge the negative reception of the psychological tools in the novel.Bonowskie dissects the novel in light of the discussion of World War I proposed by Freud in "Thoughts for the Times on War and Death" and "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" and says that Freud and West came to similar conclusions on the effect of war on the human ego