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`the Wall` By William Sansom: A Critical Review

Date : 27/12/2014

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Connie

Uploaded by : Connie
Uploaded on : 27/12/2014
Subject : English

'The Wall' by William Sansom encompasses the desensitized attitude adopted by the British people towards the dark realities of World War Two, often existing alongside a sense of duty and perseverance towards everyday life. To numb themselves to the casualties of conflict, citizens attempted to continue as normal: moments after they 'rushed to help people get out of the remains of three bombed houses' , they would go to 'a pub where a fat landlady..was offering cups of strong sweet tea.' Sansom himself lived in London and volunteered as an AFS Firefighter during the Blitz ; the autobiographical nature of his narrative reveals a numb, detached tone that emphasises the desensitization of the people towards death. Furthermore, the numb apathy with which the narrator allows his fate to tumble down upon him works with a subconscious determination to dutifully die for his country: both forces keep him rooted to the ground, anticipating his death. The sense of dutiful patriotism is implicit within 'The Wall', particularly when the narrator kneels as though waiting 'to be knighted' by a country that is literally crumbling around him. As a result of the 'blatant, morale-boosting propaganda' that permeated British consciousness throughout the war, such as Churchill's reminders of 'the fathers of our land.who shaped the greatness of our country' , the narrator's actions are unsurprising: he must stay in the name of Britain, regardless of his faith in its overall victory. The Auxiliary Fire Service, compiled of volunteers, was often seen as inferior to the National Fire Service who referred to the former as 'army dodgers' ; Sansom's text is a reaction to this accusation, proving their worth, value and dedication in the face of the burning flames. The slow methodical ritual of the firemen who '[play] a fifty-foot jet up in the face of a tall city warehouse and think of nothing at all' is an aimless march to nowhere, as the fire never seems to dwindle and the hoses never seem to run out. They 'were a symbol of Britain's mood, these volunteers who streamed along to enrol' ;even the verb 'streamed' suggests an unceasing yet meandering, aimless flow and indicates the large numbers of participants, all acting in the name of duty, yet all unable to quench London's fires. However, despite such patriotism, Sansom's narrator remains aware of the cruel realities of war, jolting the reader from his reverie with 'the mortar came tearing and burning into the flesh of my face' . As the wall falls, so does the propaganda-fuelled smokescreen of London; reality comes crashing down, punctuated by the death of Lofty. The extended yet timeless moment of the wall's descent allows the narrator to meticulously describe the minutiae of the scene whilst the death of Lofty is only described in seven basic words, reiterating the idea that detachment and desensitization towards death were popular coping strategies among British civilians. Sansom's writing is not ignorant to the casualties of war, simply numbed to them. As the narrative explores the details of the setting, the wall that should take seconds to crush the firemen instead hangs suspended above them. The narrator is saved, arguably by the completion of his duty: framed by broken fragments of his city, he has survived, and will go on to fight another fire. For '[although] the outlook was black.there would be no surrender. Retreat or compromise was simply unthinkable.''

Bibliography Primary Sources Sansom, William, 'The Wall', The Selected Stories of William Sansom (Faber and Faber, 2011)

Secondary Sources Calder, Angus, The Myth of the Blitz (London: Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1991)

Honey, Maureen, Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender and Propaganda during World War II, (University of Massachusetts Press, 1985)

Smith, Harold L., War and social chance: British Society in the Second World War, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990)

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