The texts that we’ve been reading in my Literary Study of War and Peace class have been quite varied. They’ve ranged from poetry to drama to memoir to graphic novel. Now we’ve moved on to an epistolary collection from American women to their loved ones over seas during WWII, titled Since You Went Away. I’ve always felt very intrusive reading published letters because the audience they were written for was not of the public sphere. The authors and recipients of the letters are varied yet they all share the common thread of love separated by the intrusion of war. They consist of couples courting through heartfelt salutations, newly weds, and housewives driven from their work at home to work for the war effort. When reading through the vast majority of the letters, one gets the feeling that you are hearing one side of a telephone conversation because well, they are mostly written in very conversational language.
For example, one letter from Catherine Cole to her new husband Vernon Lange describes the the common obstacles of her pregnancy that he is not around to experience. “Since I’ve been home I haven’t been a bit nauseated and Mom says I’m really lucky for some girls are miserable for quite some time. Today I wore a two-way-stitch [girdle] to church and thought I’d expire before getting home so suppose I’ll have to buy a larger one… Goodnight my darling. I’ll never stop loving you.” (Since You Went Away 75)
The sense of immediacy in the letter keeps Vernon connected to the world at home. The language is very personal, especially the closing. Allowing this letter to serve as a tangible link between his family and himself. Another method of doing this, that can be seen frequently throughout the letters, is through the use of sensory language that creates a strong image of home for the person overseas.
This can be seen in Sigrid Jensen’s letter to her husband, Karl, just hours after he left. “Your magazines, your books, your ash receiver, your papers still where you dropped them last night, your clothes spilling out of your closet and even your pajamas flung on the bed. But it wasn’t till I picked up the shirt you’d worn last night that the feel of you was unbearable … I stood there holding the shirt thinking it must go to the laundry. But I couldn’t put it in the hamper. I couldn’t even lay it down.” (Since You Went Away 12)
After reading through these letters I glanced through my Google Reader and caught up on the current happenings in Iraq and Afghanistan which stream through Iraq Today. I was intrigued by the stark contrast of the type of language that is coming back across the ocean to those at home in comparison to the letters. I’m fully aware of the separation in the historical time frame these two subjects of writing have and the different purposes they serve. But I think its the individual uses of languages they use set them apart even more than time and distance. It is solely information driven and very impersonal.
For example, Police forces managed on Friday to defuse a bomb in western Kut, a security source said.
“Bomb squad managed on Friday morning (Nov. 6) to defuse a bomb at the inlet of al-Ahrar neighborhood in western Kut,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The local-made bomb was targeting Iraqi and U.S. troops on their way to the Delta base in western Kut,” he added.
If a family member is currently out of communication with the person they love in the war, this website might serve as one of their main sources of information. The constant listing of casualties and attacks would be very hard to manage, especially since the site refrains from using names.
