Stepping on the Cracks

Margaret gains self-confidence and makes difficult moral choices in these chapters as her and Elizabeth’s understanding of the war faces new challenges from Donald, Barbara, and Margaret’s mother. Hahn also expands on the theme of friendship: We see the power of Barbara’s friendship with Stuart and observe how the girls’ opinion of Gordy fluctuates. The possibility of enemies becoming friends surfaces explicitly in Hahn’s use of the Thomas Hardy poem. Finally, Hahn highlights the differences between the Fishers, the Smiths, and the Bakers, revealing differing familial strengths and weaknesses. Throughout this section, Hahn’s symbolic use of trains, the snow, and angels helps illuminate her themes.

Margaret takes the lead in saving Stuart. Although unused to being listened to or telling others what to do, Margaret not only formulates a plan but stands up to Gordy to put her plan to action. Elizabeth, uncharacteristically, takes a supportive role. Margaret’s proactive efforts show her increasing self-assurance. Margaret also reveals her growing independence of thought. She recognizes that she is more open-minded than her mother, who has a fixed belief about patriotic obligation. Margaret extends this open-mindedness to Jimmy and concludes that he would want her to help Stuart. With her newfound confidence, Margaret navigates a moral dilemma, choosing to commit the lesser offenses of lying to her mother and continuing to disobey the law for the greater cause of saving Stuart’s life. Her choices show she is maturing mentally and emotionally.

Donald’s letter illustrates the dark reality of the war: It is kill or be killed. Similarly, Barbara sees no glory in Butch’s death, instead mourning his absence and the need to raise a son without his father. Barbara’s insistence that she would hide Brent rather than let him go to war stands in sharp contrast to the stance of Margaret’s mother. It also surprises Elizabeth. Stuart’s use of “The Man He Killed” as an antiwar argument does not convince Elizabeth, but it does jibe with her increasing reflectiveness. Margaret later imagines Jimmy surrounded by dying men who could have been friends, much like in Hardy’s poem. Margaret can now see beyond the propaganda and empathize with soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an acclaimed English novelist and poet. Hardy was a Victorian realist, and his poetry influenced other war poets like Rupert Brooke and Siegfried Sassoon, the latter famous for his antiwar poetry. Both Brooke and Sassoon served in WWI. In “The Man He Killed,” Hardy reveals his own antiwar sentiments. Hardy sympathized with ordinary people caught up in and victimized by war. Hardy believed in “evolutionary meliorism,” or the power of people to improve life, such as their power to overcome the evils of war (“Thomas Hardy.” The Poetry Foundation). Stuart echoes Hardy’s beliefs even in his delirium, raving that the war must stop and that there must be something he can do to stop it.

One possibility Stuart mentions is becoming a conscientious objector. During World War II, men who refused to take up arms because of their beliefs could serve in noncombatant military roles like that of medic or chaplain, join the Civilian Public Service program (CPS), or face jail time. There were nearly 12,000 conscientious objectors in WWII (“What Is Civilian Public Service?” Civilian Public Service.org). Many, like the Quakers or Mennonites, held religious beliefs that forbade them to fight. Others, like Stuart, simply believed killing was wrong. CPS workers performed “work of national importance” like preventing forest fires, working in the dairy industry, participating in medical trials (including starvation studies), and working in psychiatric hospitals. Conscientious objectors were unpaid (“Alternative Service: Conscientious Objectors and Civilian Public Service in World War II.” The National World War II Museum, 16 Oct. 2020).

As the girls get to know Stuart, they also learn more about Gordy and his abusive homelife. They begin to empathize more with Gordy and consider him less of an enemy and almost a friend, though he continues to hold them at arm’s length. As Elizabeth complains, “Every time I think I’m starting to like Gordy a little better, he acts horrible, and I hate him all over again” (154). Margaret thus learns that even friendship is more complex than she thought. In these chapters, Hahn also expands on Barbara and Stuart’s friendship. Friends since kindergarten, Stuart trusts “Barb” implicitly, and she stalwartly supports “Stu.” Stuart’s feverish pleasure in thinking of the name “Barbara Smith,” which combines her first name with Stuart’s last, suggests Stuart may have more than just friendship in mind.

In this section, Hahn takes a closer look at different examples of family life, expanding on the theme of domestic abuse. The Smith family is infamous in town, and Gordy is sensitive about his family’s disreputable image; when Barbara assures Gordy that her family will happily help Stuart, Gordy angrily declares that they are only willing to do so because Stuart is different from the rest of his family—especially Mr. Smith, whose abuse fully emerges in this section. Elizabeth and Margaret watch in horror as Mr. Smith viciously beats up Gordy. In contrast, Barbara’s parents are loving, nurturing, and supportive. Margaret’s family falls somewhere in between, as she wishes that her parents communicated and understood her better.

Hahn expands her use of several symbolic elements in these chapters. Stuart calls Elizabeth, Margaret, and Barbara his “angels of the battlefield”—a reference to Clara Barton. Barton nursed, comforted, and helped supply and support soldiers during both the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War in Europe. Additionally, Barton aided families of missing soldiers and established the American Red Cross, which she led for 23 years. In comparing the girls and Barbara to Clara Barton, Stuart shows his appreciation of their capability and courage. Finally, both trains and snow act as symbols of the characters’ transition to adulthood. Trains carry away the troops—no more than boys—to war, where they are forced to become men. Images of the soldiers’ and Gordy’s red blood on the snow tarnishes its whiteness, indicating a loss of innocence.