Loss Of Societal Comforts In No Man's Land By Kevin Major

Loss of societal comforts during war in No Man’s Land

War is one of the worst things a human can experience. During times of war, the soldiers’ level of comfort decreases because of losing access to food, water, and other necessities. In No Man’s Land by Kevin Major, one of the main themes is the soldiers’ loss of societal comforts. Major uses food, stories, and specific locations to illustrate that during times of war, the comforts of society are lost. Firstly, the introduction of everyday foods, and the soldiers' glorification of them, shows that during war, the social comfort resulting from proper nutrition disappears. Secondly, the locations that the soldiers are forced to reside in, and their treatment of these locations, demonstrates

Major illustrates this every time a soldier does something to make one of these locations more homelike. For example, when the barn which A Company uses as living quarters is described, the men are said to have “pinned up pictures, of ocean scenes sent from home” (34) as well as later being said that one of the men carved “a crude rendering of a caribou head” (73) into the wall. The men hanging pictures of home and carving pictures into the wall to make the barn feel more homelike shows that they do not feel the comfort and warmth of a home and feel longing for a home. It can in turn be inferred that if the men from one company feel longing for their home, that the men in the other companies feel the same. The men longing for home proves that during times of war the comfort of a home is lost. Another occasion in which Major makes his point is when Clarke claims the captain’s dugout as his own and it says that he “already made the place home, with the brass-framed photograph of his family that he took wherever he went” (173-174). The use of the words made the place home, in correlation with the picture of Clarke’s family shows that he associates home with being with his family. Clarke taking the photo with him wherever he goes, shows that he misses them and wishes to be with them. If Clarke thinks of

For instance, when Moss and Smith make up a story about being fishermen back home, they are described as “forever carrying on as if they were still fishermen back in Newfoundland” followed by a description of how they use their “Father’s skiff” (19). Moss and Smith making the distinction of using their father’s boat alongside the before mentioned description of the two, demonstrates their desire to return to their homeland and the subconscious desire of seeing their father’s. Furthermore, each of the men’s desire to see their father can in turn be said that they have the desire to see their family. Thus, proving that during times of war, the comfort of family is lost. Another example which proves the author’s point is when the new recruits are assigned to their companies and it is described that they are “offered cigarettes'' (88) by the other men in their newly appointed company. The soldiers' willingness to share their decreasing supply of cigarettes with the new recruits in exchange for hearing any news they had about their families reveals how desperate they were to hear of their family. Serving to prove that the comfort of family is lost during war. In conclusion, Moss and Smith's subconscious longing to see their fathers, as well as