Falling from Grace

WWI forced all those involved to confront the fact that under pressure, nationalism is easily defeated by hardship. Within the article, Evelyn Blücher describes the poverty and difficulty felt by the people at home. Ever before have we heard of the horrors seen by soldiers in the trenches. From this we learn that normal conditions at home were almost as bad. "The less [food]... the more we talk of it." Despite the fact that this article is almost completely focused on the sacrifices made by civilians on the home front to give more to WWI, the war is hardly ever mentioned. The focus is primarily on what was lost, or rather never had. Even seemingly useless things in war (a church bell [possibly melted down for metal]) were taken by the "military authorities," not without "tears and protestations." That the people would protest the taking of object of sentimentality shows us that their focus was more on themselves and not on easing the way for their soldiers at war. This implies that people were no longer thinking on a national level, but more individually: how much food will I eat today? Will I fall asleep hungry? This is understandable. It is more easy to think grandly of yourself only as a part of a group when life is prosperous. When everyone feels the privation, the mentality becomes more of personal survival. It was no help that "in the towns they [were] considerably worse off." The thriving centers of a town would have been the heart and soul of nationalism, large groupings of people who, surrounded by humanity, felt a part of something. When these people were reduced to "waiting to get but a pound of cabbage, onions, etc." they could no longer gather and promote nationalistic ideals. It comes as no surprise that when everyone began to feel the strain, the propaganda began to fail and the people were less emotionally involved in the outcome of the war - it began to matter less who won, and more how soon it would be over. Suffering made the people lose their grandeous ideals, defeating the role of nationalism in the first world war.