Testament Of Youth Analysis

Testament of Youth is a movie in the form of a historical memoir, in which the protagonist Vera Brittain experiences and describes the traumatic events of World War I. This movie gives a personal perspective of life during the early 1900s, displaying the transition from pre war to the war and the horror of being at home or involved in the battle. Watching this movie provided a much different way of retaining information than learning about it in class or from a textbook. After watching this movie, I recognized that the movie both confirmed and refuted some of what we learned in class, that the style of a first-person narrative can have a major effect on my reception of the information, and that a film production of a written memoir can be

The movie Testament of Youth is narrated by Vera Brittain, a young British woman with hopes of attending Oxford and becoming a writer. She is 21 years old at the start of the war and tells the story both from home and serving as a war nurse in France. She was deeply affected by the war because she had a brother, a fiance, and other friends who enlisted to serve. The story being told from her view significantly affects the interpretation and description of events. The personal account of the tragedy and loss of Vera’s loved ones allows the audience to better sympathize and feel closer to the narrator's situation. When Vera is told about the loss of someone she knew and loved in the war, the viewers put themselves in her place, feeling grief and fear. A personal narrative draws increased emotion from those watching. This certain first person narrative is unique because Vera is not directly involved in the fighting, but instead receiving information from home. This creates a fearful unknowing and uncertainty for Vera, which translates to those watching. Throughout the film, Vera is updated on the war newspapers and by word of mouth. She is constantly in fear when she checks the seemingly endless list of casualties. Since the audience only knows what Vera knows, they share a fearful ignorance of the fate of those in combat. With desperation to become closer to her friends and family in the war, Vera volunteers as a war nurse. This gives the audience a closer look at the atmosphere and drama of the war along with the sights, smells, and emotion drawn from the war hospitals where Vera works. All of these factors contribute to the way the information is