- In the book Not So Quiet, the story is written in Helen’s point of view with first person. Giving the readers insight on her thoughts. Aldington does something interesting with The Case of Lieutenant Hall and writes it in a “diary entry” format. How does Aldington’s “diary entry” framing of the story complicate or aid the narrative of the idea of victory and “the end” of the war? What does the format reveal or possibly leave out in contrast to stories like Not So Quiet and All Quiet on the Western Front?
- After Lieutenant Hall’s mental sanities spiral throughout the diary entries, filled with troubling and disturbing details. But still had intimate moments, what is the significance of the cold and robot-like tone of the coroner’s report at the end and what does it about societies behavior towards returning soldiers?
- In The Case of Lieutenant Hall, money and influence was brought up on several occasion in terms of the war. How does Lieutenant Hall’s discharge process expose inequalities of class wealth and influence, and what does this suggest about who was able to leave or “escape” the war more quickly? What other points does Hall make towards the end of the story about “paying one’s own way” and can that be interpreted.
4 thoughts on “Juliana’s Reading Questions for September 25th (Hall)”
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I really like these questions, and I wanted to answer your second one! The stoic tone of the final excerpt pulled me out of the intimate narration we had seen earlier, and it reminded me of the closing passages in Not So Quiet and All Quiet on the Western Front, where the first-person perspective shifts to a detached third-person voice (this shift lays out the effects of war on the characters’ lives in the same absent, ungrounded tone). I think it reinforces everything Lieutenant Hall had been critiquing—society’s treatment of returning soldiers—while at the same time negating the desperate plea for compassion that runs through his private entries. I also think it reaffirms how society has reduced these men to machines—war robots built to fight merciless battles—and we see that dehumanizing transformation carry over into their lives after the war has ended, and, in this case, even into the afterlife. I feel like it’s a legacy (or perhaps an expectation?) that society is forcing onto these men, which tragically reminds readers that such intimate narrations (Hall, Nellie, and Paul) cannot overshadow how society ultimately sees them.
Thank you for the questions 🙂
I also thought it was very reminiscent of the ending of All Quiet. We spend the entire novel/short story focalized through a first-person narrator and get really deep into their mental states and lives, and then all of a sudden it just ends in a really cold, detached third-person paragraph.
These are great questions! I would love to answer the first one!
1. This diary format used in historical books has always been my favorite way of telling a story. You see this same kind of format in The Diary of Anne Frank. (yes I know these are under very different circumstances about different wars and Anne Frank’s diary, though containing supplements and edits by her father Otto Frank, is still an authentic diary containing her inner thoughts in real time, not a purposeful style choice but I still believe it is a valid example for what I am trying to say) The Diary of Anne Frank (absolutely gut wrenching and tragic ) is truly a beautiful book and I think one of the supporting contributions to its beauty is in fact the diary format. I think diary formats, when used correctly, is a powerful way to tell a story and I personally believe a war storyline is a great example of how it can be used correctly. Ok now stay with me y’all. Past wars are often times so impersonal for onlookers from the present. The diary format allows for readers such as us in our class in 2025, to read about the war and really feel something. There are no distractions, no filler plot lines, it is just straight internal thoughts and deep analysis about the experience. There is a reason diaries often come with locks. It’s because you are supposed to spill all your most deepest thoughts and feelings onto the pages. It’s your private monologue. Your diary is supposed to contain what you feel coursing through your veins but sometimes cannot say aloud. This personal, intimate perspective of the war, though complicated, is raw and emotional and aids the overall narrative in The Case of Lieutenant Hall. For example, on page 3 in the November 27th 1918 log, he is staying with mother and her son in the country side as his unit is relocated. He gives the little boy a piece of white bread, something the boy has never had before. The kid thinks it’s cake. Since it’s a diary, we get an unfiltered response to this interaction as he writes “I don’t know why this upset me, but it did. The misery of these people, the misery of this flat wintry land, lies on us all.” These 2 sentences are probably more honest than the entire first chapter of Not So Quiet. Even as we see Lieutenant Hall’s slow spiral into, well, insanity, it’s revealing more about the war’s true nature and it frankly is more impactful because of the personal diary format.
GREAT QUESTIONS!
ah sorry something I meant to add when talking about the importance of the diary narrative is that normal first person perspectives tell you about the war, diaries make you feel it. Additionally, when reading a diary format story, the reader knows off the bat that stuff is happening outside the words on the page, so if the author is having the character take time out of their day to write something in the diary it is of the utmost importance and contextualization.