This essay will discuss how the Great War impacted Vera Brittain’s generation and the worldview, also the war propaganda posters, Clapham’s account, and post-war art. The book Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth is an autobiography novel. Vera’s choice in vocabulary suggests that she is writing for her educated age group. In the book Vera Brittain includes her childhood to preface that life goes on. Vera Brittain lives in the high middle class known as the bourgeois society. Vera Brittain, Testament to Youth illustrates in the beginning about Vera Brittain’s life growing up as young child living in a bourgeois society. The book continues on about Vera Brittain’s life as a nurse during World War I and also being a politician for women to have …show more content…
rights. The war propaganda posters “B. Wennerberg, The Departure” shows women severing the men before leaving for war. The propaganda poster “Golden Dawn Cigarettes” shows the men celebrating their win at the end of the war. Clapham’s document is about his multiple experiences of fighting the Ypres. The post-war art “Otto Dix, Shock Troops Advancing Under a Gas Attack” symbolizes how Clapham’s people as well used gas during the fighting of a war. In the post-war art the men are wearing a body suit to protect them from the gas. The Great War effected Vera’s generation greatly, but by looking at the war propaganda posters, and Clapham’s account both relate to Vera’s life experiences, whereas, the post-war art “Otto Dix, Shock Troops Advancing Under a Gas Attack” shows, no relation to any of Vera Brittain’s experiences during the Great War. The Great War effected Vera Brittain’s generation and their worldview in many ways.
A Testament of Youth says, “one-tenth of the physical and psychological shock that the Great War caused to the Modern Girl of 1914” (Williams and Bostridge 45). The women in Vera Brittain’s generation were greatly impacted during the Great War. These women were not allowed to attend college to further their education, go to work out in public, because the bourgeois society saw women to be the stay at home house wife. The book Testament of Youth states, “habitually quiet and respected citizens struggled like wolves for the provisions in the food shops, and vented upon the distract assistants their dismay at learning that all prices had suddenly gone up” (Williams and Bostridge 96). The society had a hard time grocery shopping at their local food shops because their food shops decided to move the food around differently in the store. The food shops did this so the society would not realize that the prices had increased because of the major war causing inflation. The worldview of the war affected Vera’s generation negatively. The Testament of Youth mentions, “the war, we decided, came the hardest of all upon us who were young” (Williams and Bostridge 129). The youth in Vera’s generation grew up living in the disaster of present war which caused many of the youth to lose their happiness. This war was hard for the young to accept because many did not want to see father’s leave to go and fight not knowing whether he would come back
home. Vera Brittain’s experiences compare greatly to the attitudes and experiences presented in the war propaganda posters. In the “B. Wennerberg, The Departure” posture shows that the men were excited about going to war to conqueror a win. The women or maids in the “B. Wennerberg, The Dapture” posture are gladly severing the men food before leaving. This reveals that the women where facing sadness on the inside at the time of severing the men but not expressing the sadness by crying. The women wanted the men to leave on a positive thought of eventually returning home. Therefore, the women made sure to greet each man with a positive greeting and a smile. The first war finally hits Vera Brittain’s home town in Buxton. The Testament of Youth states, “our elderly cook, who had three Reservist sons, dissolved into continuous tears and was too much upset to prepare meals with her usual competence” (Williams and Bostridge 96). This reveals the elderly lady was not ready to let go of her three sons who are members of the military. The elderly lady finds letting go to be difficult because this could be the last time she sees all three of her sons together. Also Testament of Youth states, “the daughter-in-law of the elderly cook had a baby only the previous Friday, became hysterical and had to be forcibly restrained from getting up and following her husband to the station” (Williams and Bostridge 96). The elderly women’s daughter-in-law expresses her extreme emotion of her husband leaving her and the baby to go and fight in the war. I believe the daughter-in-law would have liked her and her husband to have more time with the baby together as a family. The husband will not have the close family father bond with his own child because he is leaving to go fight in the war. The advertisement card “Golden Dawn Cigarettes” presents war hero’s smoking. The trenches dug in the ground made the warfare a matter of yardage. The men had to be careful and watch for trenches because this was another way of death. The men on the winning war team are more likely to buy cigarettes and smoke after the accomplishment of a victory. I think this is the way the men were able to talk about their successes and failures after the battle has been fought. This not only brought out advertisement to war accomplishments but to also targets others in the society who are not successful to become successful so the success can be celebrated. In Testament of Youth says, “ubiquitousness of the invisible Russians formed a topic of absorbing interest at every tea-table throughout the country” (Williams and Bostridge 97). The war was still going on in Buxton, when a group of Russians came together to drink tea and to talk about the war. I believe the men continued to come together to discuss the war in general. Therefore Vera Brittain’s experiences during the war are more commonly seen in society today. In Clapham’s account, treatment of an injury during war battle is not a necessity whereas in the Testament of Youth Vera Brittain takes care of the injured solders. The article “Twenty- Four Hours on the Western Front” talks about an opposing opponent found a piece of a man’s cheek. He uncovered the man’s head and several other opposing opponent members came to help dig out the man (Clapham 384). The document, “Twenty-Four Hours on the Western Front” states, “he was undamaged expect for his feet and ankles, where were a mass of pulp, and he recovered consciousness as we worked” (Clapham 384). This reveals that even if any soldier were to be severely wounded, he would lay on the ground in severe pain until he dies. The Testament of Youth states, “although the first dressing at which I assisted a gangrenous leg wound, slimy green and scarlet, with the bone laid bare” (Williams and Bostridge 211). In this time frame Vera Brittain is working at Camberwell were most patients were privates. As a military nurse Vera Brittain either assisted with dressing the soldier’s open wound or she did the dressing while another nurse assisted her. This distinguishes that Clapham would rather the wounded soldier suffer in pain and eventually die from his open wound. Therefore, by becoming a nurse and working at a hospital for wounded soldiers Vera Brittain is able to express her support and love for the soldier’s. In the post-war art “Otto Dix, Shock Troops Advancing Under a Gas Attack” is more related to Clapham’s account on war and how to fight. The document “Twenty-Four Hours on the Western Front” says, “as they passed, something was said of gas, but it appeared that nearly all the officers in the two front trenches had been killed or wounded, someone had raised an alarm of gas, and the men had panicked and run” (Clapham 385). The post-art “Shock Troops Advancing Under a Gas Attack” would attack the opponent with gas which would immediately start harming the opponent who later then would die. In the post-war art painting “Shock Troops Advancing Under a Gas Attack” shows the men wearing a full body suit to help protect the men from the harmful gas which is being used to kill the opponent soldiers. This reveals that gas attack was the other alternative when the military equipment was not working. To conclude, Vera Brittain’s generation was impacted greatly during the Great War. During the war the food shops went up on the food product prices. This happened because of inflation which deals with the transportation of goods and surfaces. The women in the bourgeois society were known as stay at home house wives. The men however when war was called would leave their families to go and fight for their country’s freedom. The propaganda posters relate differently to Vera Brittian’s experiences towards war. For an example, the propaganda poster “B. Wennerberg, The Departure” reveals the women gladly serving the men with a smile. The Testament of Youth reveals that the women react by crying because she does not want her husband to go to war knowing he may not come back. Vera Brittain was a nurse who worked at a hospital were wounded soldiers went to seek medical assistance. She displayed a positive attitude towards her patients and was willing to go the extra step if she needed to. Clapham on the other hand was the opposite viewpoint. If a soldier was terribly wounded the soldier would lie in the same place and would have eventually died for his open wound. If the soldier wound was minor the wound would naturally heel on its own. The post-war art “Otto Dix, Troops Advancing Under a Gas Attack” converses with Clapham’s view of fighting in a war. The use of gas gives the soldiers a better control of the war which would then led to the victory of winning. War is constantly happening in society today and both men and women are able to join a force or the military. Vera Brittain stood up for women and accomplished that women need the same recognition and standing in society as the men in society.
American women in World War II brought significant changes which although people expectation that life would go back to normal they modify their lifestyle making women free of society pressure and norms, because the war changed the traditional way to see a woman and their roles leading to a new society where women were allowed to study and work in the same way than men. Creating a legacy with the principles of today’s society.
is only a snapshot of one moment in history. It does not tell us about
“At the war’s end, even though a majority of women surveyed reported wanted to keep their jobs, many were forced out by men returning home and by the downturn in demand for war materials… The nation that needed their help in
The film titled, “The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter”, looks at the roles of women during and after World War II within the U.S. The film interviews five women who had experienced the World War II effects in the U.S, two who were Caucasian and three who were African American. These five women, who were among the millions of women recruited into skilled male-oriented jobs during World War II, shared insight into how women were treated, viewed and mainly controlled. Along with the interviews are clips from U.S. government propaganda films, news reports from the media, March of Time films, and newspaper stories, all depicting how women are to take "the men’s" places to keep up with industrial production, while reassured that their duties were fulfilling the patriotic and feminine role. After the war the government and media had changed their message as women were to resume the role of the housewife, maid and mother to stay out of the way of returning soldiers. Thus the patriotic and feminine role was nothing but a mystified tactic the government used to maintain the American economic structure during the world war period. It is the contention of this paper to explore how several groups of women were treated as mindless individuals that could be controlled and disposed of through the government arranging social institutions, media manipulation and propaganda, and assumptions behind women’s tendencies which forced “Rosie the Riveter” to become a male dominated concept.
After the end of World War II, the United States went through many changes. Most of the changes were for the better, but some had an adverse effect on certain population centers. Many programs, agencies and policies were created to transform American society and government.
For the first time women were working in the industries of America. As husbands and fathers, sons and brothers shipped out to fight in Europe and the Pacific, millions of women marched into factories, offices, and military bases to work in paying jobs and in roles reserved for men in peacetime. Women were making a living that was not comparable to anything they had seen before. They were dependent on themselves; for once they could support the household. Most of the work in industry was related to the war, such as radios for airplanes and shells for guns. Peggy Terry, a young woman who worked at a shell-loading plant in Kentucky, tells of the money that was to be made from industrial work (108). “We made a fabulous sum of thirty-two dollars a week. To us that was an absolute miracle. Before that, we made nothing (108)." Sarah Killingsworth worked in a defense plant. " All I wanted to do was get in the factory, because they were payin more than what I'd been makin. Which was forty dollars a week, which was pretty good considering I'd been makin about twenty dollars a week. When I left Tennessee I was only makin two-fifty a week, so that was quite a jump (114)." Terry had never been able to provide for herself as she was able to during the war. " Now we'd have money to buy shoes and a dress and pay rent and get some food on the table. We were just happy to have work (108).” These women exemplify the turn around from the peacetime to wartime atmosphere on the home front. The depression had repressed them to poverty like living conditions. The war had enabled them to have what would be luxury as compared to life before.
When the war started, women had to take over the jobs of men and they learned to be independent. These women exemplified the beginning of change. Coupled with enfranchisement and the increased popularity of birth control, women experienced a new liberation. When the men returned from the war they found competition from the newly liberated woman who did not want to settle for making a home (Melman 17). This new class of women exercised a freedom that shocked society.
When the war was over, the survivors went home and the world tried to return to normalcy. Unfortunately, settling down in peacetime proved more difficult than expected. During the war, the boys had fought against both the enemy and death in far away lands; the girls had bought into the patriotic fervor and aggressively entered the workforce. During the war, both the boys and the girls of this generation had broken out of society's structure; they found it very difficult to return.
When the great war broke out and the outcomes were felt in England, Vera's goals and dreams were becoming more of a dream than a reality. It must be said that although the War brought on many challenges, it was Vera's ambition that allowed her to keep moving forward and that ambition kept her mind in the right place during many triangulations. When the Great War broke out her brother postpones his education to serve in the army for the good cause, it can be said that Verda saw this as a humble move that moved her into completing a one year course, which gave her the ability to help people by becoming a nurse for Red Cross. It must be mentioned that although Verda became a nurse in the Red Cross, she did not find the work disagreeable, however her ambition did no...
When all the men were across the ocean fighting a war for world peace, the home front soon found itself in a shortage for workers. Before the war, women mostly depended on men for financial support. But with so many gone to battle, women had to go to work to support themselves. With patriotic spirit, women one by one stepped up to do a man's work with little pay, respect or recognition. Labor shortages provided a variety of jobs for women, who became street car conductors, railroad workers, and shipbuilders. Some women took over the farms, monitoring the crops and harvesting and taking care of livestock. Women, who had young children with nobody to help them, did what they could do to help too. They made such things for the soldiers overseas, such as flannel shirts, socks and scarves.
However, when the war was over, and the men returned to their lives, society reverted back to as it had been not before the 1940s, but well before the 1900s. Women were expected to do nothing but please their husband. Women were not meant to have jobs or worry about anything that was occurrin...
In Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier the continual coverage made by the media of the war during its occurrence and the infectiousness it had on those back home is portrayed through the eyes of her narrator, Jenny. The use of a female narrator wasn’t uncommon nor new but the way West includes her feminist values into Jenny without making it central to the story is fascinating. Up to this point in history, coverage of a war had never been read about as it was during this period. Because of this advancement in getting news out had improved drastically from the last war, people back home were more aware of what was occurring from reading a newspaper without having to wait for letters from their loved ones out on the front lines. West took this information in full stride and wrote about the emotional turmoil it causes the women back home waiting for their men to come back. She makes mention by focusing and bringing to attention the elements of class, exile from being deployed and the trauma that war causes on the soldier.
This was the start of a new age in the history for women. Before the war a woman’s main job was taking care of her household more like a maid, wife and mother. The men thought that women should not have to work and they should be sheltered and protected. Society also did not like the idea of women working and having positions of power in the workforce but all that change...
The War of 1812 has always been a part of American history not very exiting to learn about for most Americans. It was a tumultuous time for the New Republic and some of the battles of the war shamed the new nation. The War of 1812 did not have the same glorious, honorable, and just cause of the American Revolution. The British made fools of the American people and even burned the Capitol and the White House, the centers of American politics, to the ground. However as shameful as the war was, it also had some good benefits and it demonstrated to Great Britain and the rest of the world that the United States of America was its own sovereign nation, and not some British Sphere of Influence. Although the treaty of Ghent failed to address the important issues that brought the United States to war, the War of 1812 helped the country improve itself internally by way of increased nationalism, greater industrialization and a more stable economy, and an overall safer nation.
The Great War, as World War I is often referred to, as promising a chance for young men to become, heroes. However, the reality of conflict harshly ruined this vision. Men were sent into muddy trenches where they anticipated death for weeks and months at a time. With the endless shelling saw even the most enduring soldiers worn down to insanity. The soldiers in Regeneration are characterized as being no different to the women with in the patriarchal society as men where reliant on orders from their leaders, soldiers therefore came to personify the submissive role that women had long been forced to oppress in patriarchal societies like that of early 20th century England. In Regeneration, Dr. Rivers connects war neuroses to the hysteria that often disturbed the women during this time; trenches diminished the men to be powerless, while strictly forbidden social roles have had the same effect on women. In both cases, these prolonged positions of involuntary obligation play a large role in triggering