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War
Course Connections | Outside Connections
“ ‘An that dumb Polock foreman must be in Hitler’s pay---th way he fixed th hands around.’” (Arnow 344).
Creator of Racial Tension
In The Dollmaker, World War II takes people from a variety of areas and backgrounds and mixes them together in Detroit. This creates an environment that is conducive to racial tension. An example can be found when Gertie is on the train on the way to Detroit, and encounters an African-American woman: “She had never seen a Negro until, in Cincinnati, they had left their separate places and mingled with the whites. She’d heard Clovis say there were Negroes in Town, but…she had never seen one” (Arnow 150). Although Gertie can see past racial and cultural differences, the majority of the characters have some sort of racial bias, whether it is Clovis’ distrust of Italian immigrants, or Mrs. Daly’s suspicion of any person that is different. The quote from the passage above is an example of racial tension that pervaded the workplace as well. Moving people out of their natural environment into a new setting among unfamililar people allows racial tension to arise.
Catalyst for Move
Perhaps the most important influence the war has on the Nevels family is that it forces them to move from their home in Kentucky to Detroit. “[T]he empty road, once so fine and new, tying their
settlement to the outside world, seemed now only a thing that took the people
away” (Arnow 51). Gertie, and other Appalachians that move out of the region to fight
overseas or work in the north pay a price for linking up with the rest of
the
The Distant War
Although the war’s role in causing the Nevels family
to move is important, this is a very isolated effect. Other aspects of the
war persist throughout the novel. An example is the perception of the war
from the viewpoint of people living in Kentucky compared to Detroit. Specifically,
a general lack of understanding of what is going on overseas is seen throughout
conversations of the war. For example, in Kentucky, one of Gertie’s neighbors
talks about her husband’s wartime occupation: “ ‘He’s left
God’s work fer Oak Ridge…Whatever it is.’” (Arnow 103). Oak Ridge is where much of the materials
for the Manhattan Project were created. Although it is obviously not to
be expected that any of Gertie’s friends 
would
know this (even the workers there “worked without knowing what they did,
and never asked” (Arnow 120)), their lack of information
on their husbands’ work creates a distance between them and the war. Due
to the isolation of the Appalachian region, they are forced to make guesses
at how the war is progressing. Even the idea of countries overseas is overwhelming,
as displayed by another of Gertie’s Kentucky friends: “
‘It makes me dizzy, the map,’ she said, and sat down. Most of the
others continued to look at the map, wondering, hunting, murmuring the strange,
heathenish-sounding names” (Arnow 121). Before
leaving Appalachia, the distance of the war from the mountains is troubling
for the people of the area.
However, in Detroit, the war is thrown in the face of Gertie and her family. Besides the fact that her family is there because of the war, the introduction of the radio makes the war much more “real:” "'The fifty-third wiped out a tank battalion. The screaming enemy trapped in their exploding---' Gertie tried not to hear, but the voice demanded that she listen as it went on..." (Arnow 262). Late in the novel, the atom bomb that was being prepared at Oak Ridge is talked about. In fact, Enoch makes an eerily accurate description of the bomb:
But Enoch…thought differently.
‘Why, you know they’d be some wot cried. I figger that ole bomb jist kills the ones real close right away; them on the edge gits bad burnt an crawls around awhile---Mom, recollect back home when we’d git a rid a th tater bugs…I figger them Japs around u atom bomb is kinda like them bugs.’ (Arnow 494).
The question is, what does this increased influence
of the war in the lives of the Nevels family represent? In
some ways, it is an end of innocence. No longer able to rationalize or forget
about the war, the nature of wartime Detroit makes the overseas combat unavoidable. This,
combined with the more tangible problems of surviving in the city, forces
the Nevels family to come to grips with events outside the Appalachian
region (and outside the
A Soldier’s Death, A Soldier’s Return
In Dollmaker, only two soldiers who fought overseas are ever mentioned. The first is Gertie’s brother, Henley, who dies in combat overseas. In a way, Henley is another example of the “distant” war in Kentucky, Gertie had “never seen her brother as a soldier…Always he came in the silence as the farmer” (Arnow 50). More importantly, Henley’s death enables Gertie to buy the Tipton Place, when she inherits money he had left. At one point, Gertie thinks “the war and Henley’s death had been a plan to help set her and her children free…” (Arnow 139). This is a case where war has a positive and negative consequence. Gertie loses a brother, but gains the chance to own her homeplace.
Late in the novel, after World War II ends, a second soldier enters the
life o
f the Nevels family. An anonymous young
soldier fights alongside Clovis in a union-related battle. The soldier makes
a link between the war and what had just transpired, saying “ ‘I wonder…if
that one you hit---well, he was so still---and when they dragged him off
he was like the ones I used to see---you know, in th war.’” (Arnow 529). This
soldier plays a much different role than Henley. Once again, the war is
made real to the Nevels family in Detroit. In
fact, one can look at Henley and the young soldier in the same context as
the two types of war in the previous section. Henley represents the “distant”
war experienced by inhabitants of Kentucky, while the young soldier represents
the end of innocence from war in Detroit.
Female Empowerment
The idea of war as empowering to women is touched upon early in The Dollmaker. Gertie takes on the role of the “man” of the town after most of the men leave for combat or factory work. She talks with her father early in the novel about the historical precedence for this: “She tried to smile, ‘Why, Pop, many’s th time I’ve heared you tell about how th women managed in th War a 1812 when they wasn’t a man above fourteen left in th settlement. I can do a man’s work.’” (Arnow 72). The war changes Gertie’s role in the community from housewife to primary provider. Gertie farms, handles the family finances, and is asked for help from others in the community to do typically “male” jobs. War flips normal gender stereotypes; when the men leave, women are forced to perform their traditional duties to keep the town running.
Conclusions
In Dollmaker, war plays two main roles. It physically moves the Nevels family from Kentucky to Detroit, which in turn creates most of the problems and conflicts for the rest of the novel. War also forces the family to come to grips with events happening outside the Appalachian region. The city environment of Detroit makes the family aware of the problems of factory workers, and the progress of World War II abroad. In the past, the people of Appalachia could isolate themselves in the mountains from outside problems, but war destroys these borders, mixing Appalachia and the “north” together for the common purpose of fighting evil abroad.
Cold Mountain: Consequences, Good and Bad
Although Charles Frazier’s novel changes the setting
from World War II to the Civil War, the effects that war has on the lives
of the two protagonists
are similar. Inman gives the reader a perspective on war through the eyes
of a deserter. As displayed through various flashbacks, Inman has already
had an “end of innocence” through his fighting; once a peaceful, introspective
man, he is forced to kill Union troops to the point where he “just got to
hating them for their clodplated determination
to die” (Frazier 11). War forces Inman to leave a life he enjoyed in order
to fight, much like Gertie must leave her drea
ms of the Tipton Place in Kentucky
for Detroit. As Inman journeys toward home, the war plays an active role
in attempting to stop him from reaching his goal. The Home Guard, designed
to round up deserters, chases Inman, and eventually kills him at the conclusion
of the novel when he finally reaches Cold Mountain. Once again, the war
is a catalyst for Inman’s journey, but because he is a soldier, it never
lets him go. Much like the young soldier in Dollmaker, Inman is forced to deal with the psychological
effects of war, with the added caveat that there is the chance that the war
may still kill him after his desertion.
Contrasting with Inman, the effects of war on Ada are positive, in the long run. At first, this does not seem to be the case, as the death of her father coinciding with the departure of many of the men in the surrounding area leaves her with a farm that she does not know how to run. Luckily, help comes in the form of the able Ruby, and Ada begins to undergo a transformation from a woman dependent on others to a self-sustaining person. Together, they defy traditional gender roles, once again displaying the empowering role war can have for women. More importantly for Ada, the consequences of the war give her a sense of direction in her life. In her “previous life” in Charleston, Ada’s only means of escape from an increasingly boring life is literature. However, the changing power of war expands her horizons: “She wondered if literature might lose some its interest when she reached an age or state of mind where her life was set on such a sure course that the things she read might stop seeming so powerfully like alternate directions for her being” (Frazier 328). In other words, in her wartime, independent life, Ada can find meaning in the things she is doing, rather than having to resort to her novels.
Oak Ridge
Oak Ridge, mentioned earlier as the location where materials for the Manhattan Project was assembled, is a real-life example of how war can displace people in a region. The following passage details how families were displaced throughout development of the Oak Ridge area:
The land occupied by these settlers had been acquired for homesteading in 1798 by a treaty between the U.S. government and several Cherokee tribes. Some of the residents of the four communities had moved there after being displaced by government activities such as the establishment of Great Smoky Mountains National Park by the National Park Service and the construction of Norris Dam by the Tennessee Valley Authority. In September 1942, about 1000 families were displaced again by the U.S. government's acquisition of 59,000 acres for the wartime Manhattan Project. (Atoms)
An interesting side note is that this passage was found on the Oak Ridge National Laboratory website! As a sort of justification, this is how the article concluded:
Residents of Scarborough were as unhappy as the settlers in Wheat, Robertsville, and Elza about leaving their farms and land. But, as one of them said: "What do you do? The government needed your land to win the war. Who would refuse such a request as that?" (Atoms)
Oak Ridge is an example of war as a catalyst for change. World War II forced people from the Appalachian region to work on projects that were not even revealed to them. War acted as an outside force that changed the dynamics of Appalachian life and economics. It is another example of the “distant” war being made real.
Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennesee Valley Authority, explained in this encyclopedia entry, was eventually used during World War II to recruit Appalachian workers:
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a New Deal agency created to generate electric
power and control floods in a seven state region around the Tennessee River
Valley. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Tennesse Valley Authority
Act creating the TVA on May 18, 1933. The agency is still extant
. The Tennessee
Valley Authority is now a government-owned agency that competes with private
power companies. There is some controversy surrounding the TVA, as government-owned
means of production is a socialist concept. Controversy has been a feature
of the TVA since its inception. During World War II, the United States needed
aluminum to build bombs and airplanes, and aluminum plants required electricity.
To provide power for such critical war industries, TVA engaged in one of
the largest hydropower construction programs ever undertaken in the United
States. Early in 1942, when the effort reached its peak, 12 hydroelectric
projects and a steam plant were under construction at the same time, and
design and construction employment reached a total of 28,000. (Tennessee)
This is another example of how war can displace people. Because people were needed to provide valuable materials for the war effort, many Appalachians were encouraged (or forced) to move from life on the farm to a factory job. Although some embraced such a change (such as Clovis), for many of them life became much more difficult as a result of the change.
Rosie the Riveter: Women in World War II
Of course, the female empowerment that takes place in Dollmaker was not isolated to the Appalachian region. Women from all walks of life took on larger roles in the workplace due to the export of male soldiers abroad. The role shifts that women went through are outlined in this article excerpt.
From an oral history project on Women in World War II:
Most Americans knew the world was about to change forever. "I think
all of us were terrified of Hitler. I mean he'd gone booming through all
of Europe, just doing whatever he wanted to do," said Barbara Gwynne,
who was 26 years old at that time. Nancy Potter, who was just 16, recalled
her fears, "I was standing on the stairs when the Pearl Harbor announcement
was made... I can remember looking down at the carpet, and thinking my life
would never be the same again." When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,
the United States found itself unprepared for war. Nearly all of its battleship
fleet had been destroyed, and as the Japanese began to conquer the Pacific
Islands, the American home front geared up for a complete, all out effort
to rush into war production and draft men into combat.. American society
would experience dramatic changes over the next few years.
Government intervention during the Depression
had mainly given jobs to men. There was a lot of overt discrimination against
women, especially in the "better" jobs
like teaching, civil service, and secretarial work. Men and women had different
types of jobs. Men worked in manufacturing and dominated the professions.
Women did clerical work, or worked on the lower scale in a factory, or worked
as domestics in other people's homes. Overall, more married women were at
work in the 1930's than in the 1920's, but they were concentrated in the
lowest paying jobs. Rhode Island, with its textile mills, jewelry shops,
and factories, had always been a place where married women worked. 
The war brought a tremendous shortage of labor. Not only was there great demand for labor to build up the war machines necessary to fight, but the men were leaving civilian employment for military service in huge numbers. To fill the shortage, society could have gone back to child labor as in the preceding century. Instead, society asked women to fill the jobs (See Rosie the Riveter), and they rushed to take them. Was it patriotism and propaganda that made women find war jobs? Or was it money, independence, companionship, and pride in learning new skills that motivated them? "Women did change. They had gotten the feeling of their own money. Making it themselves. Not asking anybody how to spend it," said Naomi Craig, who was finally able to get a decent job because of the war when industry needed workers, regardless of their sex or color.
It was an emotional time to say the least. There was concern about women taking soldiers' jobs; worry about the effect on the family and anxiety about the breakdown of social values. War and full employment was incredibly liberating for women, but represented deep and provocative change in their traditional roles. The movies reflected this duality. War films like Since You Went Away and Mrs.Miniver showed faithful women doing volunteer work to support the war effort,keeping home fires burning, waiting for their men to return. But shortly after peace time, films like Double Indemnity and Gilda implied that the war had allowed women to "get out of hand," and that the "liberated woman" might be undermining traditional marriage and family (Hartman-Strom).
In a way, women during World War II are analogous to Appalachians during the same time. During the war, they were expected to leave their traditional roles and work for the war effort. After the war’s conclusion, however, they were expected to return to those traditional roles. For women, this is difficult because many wanted to stay in the workplace once it had been experienced. For Appalachians, many did not have a home to go back to after living in the city for a few years. In both cases, war created a fundamental societal shift that would not be easily reversed.
Conclusions
What can one conclude from these examples? Simply, war equals change. In other words, when a country is united for a common goal, certain changes and sacrifices made by the people involved have to be expected. In The Dollmaker, Gertie had to give up her dream of a homeplace to move to Detroit. In a more general case, many Appalachians were forced from their homes to contribute to the war effort. Many women were also forced out of their traditional roles as housewives into the workplace. In addition, once the war was over, people who had undergone these changes were expected to return to their previous roles. However, many women enjoyed the newfound freedom they had, and many Appalachians had no home to return to. Thus, the change created by war is not only drastic, it is in many cases permanent.
-Chris Infanti
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