Subject: Patriotism
Quote: “I hate the War…. I hate the cant about it, the smugness—the horrible, horrible patriotism…. All this country, country, country! Betraying your country—dying for your country—serving your country. Why should one’s country mean anything at all?”
Tommy said simply: “I don’t know. It just does.”
"You believe in the British Empire—and—and the stupidity of dying for one’s country…. Nothing’s worth dying for. It’s all an idea—talk—froth—high-flown idiocy. My country doesn’t mean anything to me at all.”
“Some day,” said Tommy, “you’ll be surprised to find that it does.”
Character: Sheila Perenna and Tommy Beresford
Chapter/Story: 4
Book Title/Copyright: N or M?, 1941
Subject: Effects of War
Quote: Always, all her life, she had been a resolute clearheaded person. She had known what she wanted and what she didn’t want. Never, until now, had she been content just to drift along.
Yes, that was just what it was! Drifting along! An aimless formless method of living. Ever since she had come out of the service. A wave of nostalgia swept over her for those war days. Days when duties were clearly defined, when life was planned and orderly—when the weight of individual decisions had been lifted from her. But even as she formulated the idea, she was horrified at herself. Was that really and truly what people were secretly feeling everywhere? Was that what, ultimately, war did to you? It was not the physical dangers…. No, it was the spiritual danger of learning how much easier life was if you ceased to think. She…was no longer the clearheaded, resolute, intelligent girl who had joined up. Her intelligence had been specialized, directed in well-defined channels. Now, mistress of herself and her life once more, she was appalled at the disinclination of her mind to seize and grapple with her own personal problems.
Character: Omniscient Narrator
Chapter/Story: Book One—13
Book Title/Copyright: There is a Tide, 1948
