Not So Quiet

Hunger and its Relationship to War "... munch on slabs of chocolate and stale biscuits. We have slept like logs through the evening meal-all except Tosh, who never misses a food-call on principle. It is her turn to make the Bovril. We gloatingly watch her light the little spirit lamp. We are hungry; but we are used to the hunger. We are always hungry in varying degrees-hungry, starving, or ravenous." (9-10) Smith uses this passage in …

…being without food along with seeing maimed, mutilated men day after day was too much to bear. While Nellie endured these hardships, her mother and aunt where at home putting forward their own contributions. They were not faced with the same horrible conditions that Nellie did. They could not understand the brutality and difficulty of fighting a war. They were not faced with the same adversity that Nellie saw everyday, yet continued to judge her.