In her novel, Not so quiet, Smith demonstrates the changing effects the Great War had on culture and identity by presenting contrasting perspectives of the war and the importance of national service
The theme of war is widely tackled in the book. Hellen Zenna Smith, through her diaries, portrays a scene where the negative consequences of war are explicitly stated. As an ambulance driver, she ferries soldiers who are victims of war as she worked at the French front (Smith 6). There are harsh living conditions and filthy environment that encourages the presence of lice. The women also have to continuously drive their way through rough roads as they look for hospitals to take the vomiting and bleeding soldiers. From these words, we are able to point out some of the consequences of war. Apart from the overstretching which wars cause to the hospitals due to the high number of casualties they have to handle at a time, war also leads to diversion of a country’s resources from the provision of services to funding the war. As we can see from the book, ambulances are inadequate, and Zenna has to rush an injured person to a hospital and rush back for the next. When doing this, she has to negotiate her way making various maneuvers through poor roads (Smith 9). This also shows the state of roads as a result of poor maintenance since the country’s resources are held up in funding war. Zenna also discusses war at the home level. She is seen reluctant to chop off her hair which has become a nuisance, and even her colleagues have cut theirs off; however, her mother is behind her reluctance to do so. On a similar occurrence, Zenna is encouraged by her mother to get better and get back to work, that she should make her proud. However, she detests going back to France, and even says she doesn’t want to go back to France (Smith 48). These instances illustrate the war at home but in all. Zenna detests war and sharply criticizes it.
The book also discusses the position of women in the society. They are broadly portrayed to be having defined roles and the society also has some expectations from them. For example, Zenna states through her diary that all the ambulance drivers were women, and amazingly, all were from gentle backgrounds and educated (Smith 33). Although these ambulance drivers do not like their jobs, the society has some expectations from them, and hence, they have to stay in their jobs to meet such expectations by the society. Zenna states that though she didn’t like her job, she had to be there at the front of the French was because she would be making her mother proud (Smith 21). Also, Zenna notes that their role as women drivers was to carry injured and bleeding men to the hospitals. She does not say soldiers or mention if there were female soldiers. This further informs us that at her time, the society gave women and men certain roles, in this case, they were just supposed to help men who became casualties of war. However, they are not to become soldiers and be at the war front like their male counterparts. However, it is also important to note that being an ambulance driver was a preserve for educated Englishwomen, from this we can tell that actually, this role was just defined by the society. It shows the discrimination that the society might be doing consciously or unconsciously. Her relationship with her mother also illustrate her position as a woman, her mother, and the whole society expects women to maintain long hair, it doesn’t matter if they are comfortable with it or not. In fact, Zenna for some time was reluctant to shave off her hair since she wanted to adhere to the wishes of her mother (Smith 28). However, the defiance from Zenna and her friends as they decide to cut their hair and maintain short hair shows an attempt by women to break off the bondage of societal expectations vis a vis what really pleases them and makes them comfortable. In all the two illustrations from the book, it is evident that the role of women in the society is more defined and confined that that of men. It does not come out clearly that there are some things that men were supposed to adhere strictly to as it comes out with the case of women.
The theme of defiance and courage also comes out from the book. Tosh defies society’s expectation of her to keep her long hair. In fact, Smithy describes her as foul-mouthed and cynical (Smith 36). She shaves off her hair and maintains short hair. Smithy also defies her mother, though after a while, and does the same. Though that puts hers in her mother’s bad books and creates another war at home. This defiance and courage has a positive outlook that it delivers freedom to an individual who has been bound by unfavorable circumstances, sacrificing her own comfort and happiness, just to make other happy. In the book, defiance is portrayed as the only way to break away from societal norms and practices. However, the book also points out that although being courageous and defiant accords one freedom which they may have wished to have for so long, that comes at a cost. Smithy, for example, has to bare the consequence of shaving her hair and hence is now at loggerheads with her mother (Smith 38). This even goes deeper and destroys the good relationship she had with her family. However, freedom seems a priority than restoration of the relationship. The male chauvinism that clearly comes from the book also shows the gender discrimination that existed in Zenna’s time. Even though she was an educated Englishwoman, she becomes an ambulance driver in France and that is the situations for other educated English women. On the other side, men are considered the courageous in the society and are the soldiers that go to war. This book is criticizes war amongst other social norms that are considered normal and observed by the society yet from various individual’s views, they harm the society. For example, it almost seems that no one in Zenna’s community is concerned about the impacts of the war. Parents are just too willing to let their children go and serve in the war front so as to make them proud. However, no one seems to be concerned about the poor roads, filthy living conditions and the overstretched hospitals, all of which are as a result of the war.
References
Smith, Helen Zenna. Not so quiet: Stepdaughters of war. Feminist Press at CUNY, 1989.
