1.) Internally, Smith frequently highlights the class divisions within her unit of ambulance drivers, reflecting on her own middle-class status when carrying out tasks assigned by “Mrs. Bitch” or the Red Cross (Smith 60). The war disrupts traditional hierarchies by placing positions of authority in the hands of lower-class women, forcing those from higher-class or more educated backgrounds to take orders. This inversion that underscores the tension within the unit, and is a constant theme within Smith’s internal dialogue. Do you believe that Smith’s attitude on class will switch as her job continues? Do you think “Smithy” has the ability to reflect on class consciousness in England in a more sympathetic manner? In what ways, if any, does she reflect on class disparities within her post or at home?
2.) “Smithy” receives letters from home, like clockwork. They’re placed on her bed and entail her family having great pride in the work that she’s doing in France. The letters often exclaim that Smith is “doing her bit for the old flag” and understands that she’d face harsh scrutiny if she were to be dismissed from the service (Smith 32). Smith recounts what it would be like if her relatives were with her when intaking brutalized soldiers within Chapter IV, as it makes her sick. In “All Quiet on the Western Front”, Paul hears a similar narrative about the war within his schooling and time on break. In what ways do Paul and Smith reconcile with societies claims about the war?
3.) Tosh, at the beginning of the text, cuts her hair to remedy the lice infestation the women face. She bluntly opposes the oppressive nature of the Commandant, and engages in dissenting dialogue without fear of retaliation. Smith also cuts her hair by the end of the sixth chapter and speaks back to the Commandant knowing it will get her in trouble (Smith 122). When Tosh passes, Smith thinks of her self as a coward, juxtaposing Tosh a someone who is brave (Smith 160). To what extent do you think Tosh’s actions or thoughts influenced Smith throughout chapters IV-VII?
I think intersectionality is not going to come to Helen naturally. Over the course of the book, she’s become less focused on the perceived “dignity” behind her work, and has, instead, become largely disillusioned with that “dignity” to begin with. As part of this disillusionment, she also begins to shed a lot of the higher-class femininity she once identified herself with. This large disillusionment is illustrated on page 99 in which, while there are multiple men screaming in her ambulance, she has a flashback to her hair being done in an elaborate manner. This scene is meant to juxtapose her higher-class upbringing with the horrifying work she is currently doing, but also to demonstrate her exile from that life entirely, to the point that in earlier passages she diminishes her own lack of femininity as being antithetical to higher-class life, “…I had forgotten these words are not used in the best drawing-rooms on Wimbleton Common” (94).
As Helen removes herself from her femininity and, furthermore, her gender, I believe she thus becomes less focused on class. Whether or not this association is positive as far as intersectionality goes is … debatable. Much of her class identity relied on the expectations of her femininity, something that she has entirely divorced herself of by this point in the novel.
Sienna, I think it’s very interesting that you bring up the transition faced by “Smithy,” from upper class to a rather low class by her usual standards. In my opinion, I don’t think Smith ever fully lets go of her ingrained class biases, even as the war wears her down and forces her into shared suffering with women from other backgrounds. She constantly notices class divisions and cringes at the inversion of authority, which shows that her perspective is deeply rooted in her upper-class upbringing. At the same time, though, the harsh conditions of ambulance work do create moments where she can’t deny that all of the women, regardless of class, are enduring the same exhaustion, danger, and dehumanization. These flashes suggest she might grow into a more sympathetic awareness, but the novel also emphasizes her bitterness and disillusionment rather than a real transformation. When Smith reflects on her life back in England, she seems most conscious of how the war has stripped her of traditional comforts and expectations, but less interested in facing the idea that all these women, in the face of war, are classless and relatively equal, aside from Mrs. Bitch. Overall, she notices class disparities both in the unit and at home, but mostly as a source of frustration to herself rather than as part of a larger social discovery.