Civilian War Narratives: A Comparison of Samuel Hynes and Iris Origo

For every war, there is a story. There are the stories learned in grade school, the stories told by grandpa, the stories watched on the history channel, or for some, the stories made right in front of open eyes. For those who witness war firsthand, either soldier or civilian, their stories are some of the most valuable when it comes to learning about what war was actually like. These narratives can provide emotional and psychological experiences that one would not be able to read about in a regular text book. In the book The Soldiers’ Tale, Samuel Hynes offers his take on war narratives, describing typical qualities these narratives usually possess and War in Val D’Orcia, a personal war diary by Iris Origo, helps to solidify and broaden some of the main topics brought to light by Hynes.

           Samuel Hynes begins by describing the civilians of countries at war as “sufferers”, saying they must suffer through war as though it were some sort of natural disaster that was out of their range of agency to do anything about (Hynes 223).  This argument is supported by Iris Origo’s personal narrative. Even though she is an upper class woman, she is still a noncombatant that must do all she can just to make sure that she, and the people and things around her that she cares for, survive the war. She packed up thirty two boxes of possessions and boarded them up in secret walls in order to protect them from German raids (Origo 93). She takes in countless children sent to her from surrounding cities, even though she has her own newborn babies to look after, giving the children toys and books to help them feel more at home. She also provides necessary clothes for evacuated women and children that pass through her land “making jerseys and baby-jackets with every scrap of wool, using the fringes off old counter-panes; slippers with old strips of carpets and curtains; and babies’ nappies with old sheets” (Origo 106-107). Origo always finds some way to help those who come to her for aid, which may cause her much suffering indeed, but relieves the burden of those who are suffering more than her.

            Hynes also refers to how in soldiers’ war narratives, these sufferers of war are commonly viewed as “powerless” and “weak”, mainly because they are unarmed (Hynes 223). However, just because these civilians cannot do much to directly change the paths of war, they can indirectly influence it by resistance. Origo talks frequently about the Fascist government and the small resistance parties throughout Italy, and although their efforts were somewhat futile, they did help when the end of the Fascist regime came about by preparing those around them for new options of government. On April 1st, Origo gives in detail how the country is divided up in six ways, all the differences being political: splits between anti-Fascists (the army, the civilians), anti-German (The House of Savoy), pro-Ally (The Vatican), moderate Fascists and hardcore Fascists. Five out of six of these described sectors all have some (even if miniscule) amount of political influence, except the sixth group: the civilians (Origo 25). Origo, first calling the civilians “hungry, bombed, [and] apprehensive”, says that “everywhere [there is] talk, talk, talk, and no action”, but if these civilians really are as “powerless” as Hynes aforementioned, or as traumatized as Origo says, how can she realistically expect action when in a way they are powerless in the sense of political authority.        

            One way the civilians do somewhat gain a sense of power, however, is through the fervent assistance of those persecuted by war. Origo talks of many instances she has with escaped prisoners of war, one specifically on May 3rd, helping them by lodging them temporarily on her land and providing them with amenities for survival. Hynes mentions the prisoner of war experience in Europe as though it were not much of a “prisoner” experience at all. He says the prisoners of war would typically make themselves at home when taken in by enemy forces, so it is not surprising to see these same prisoners doing the same when living in Origo’s “Castelluccio”. These prisoners receive Red Cross parcels containing “a tin of butter, one of marmalade or treacle, cocoa, potted meat, dried beans or peas, bacon, fifty cigarettes and a cake of excellent soap”, things that not even Origo herself have (Origo 31). But even though these prisoners have some luxuries and the memories of Allied bombings are still fresh, and even though to be caught could mean imprisonment or death, Origo takes them in and treats them all with respect. This kind of selflessness and compassion is seen throughout Origo’s diary, not only with the prisoners of war, but through almost all of her actions.

          Hynes calls World War II “a war against civilians” (Hynes 228), and by this he means that now not only were combatants considered the enemy, but the entire country itself. This is seen in Origo’s diary through the multiple air raids she hears about and personally goes through. On May 2nd, Origo talks about the bombing of Grosseto, in which the airport was bombed, an amusement park was gunned down as children rode on merry-go-rounds, a priest and those dying on his church doorstep were machine-gunned, innocent people dressed in their “Sunday best” were gunned down in the streets, and the hospital was bombed last, leaving those who survived the air raid without proper care for their wounds (Origo 29). On May 20th, she mentions common objects used by women and children that contain explosives that were supposedly dropped throughout Italian streets by Allied planes (Origo 35). On May 31st, she talks about a British Sunday School that was bombed by German raiders in which 20 children died and how some children were also machine-gunned on the beach (Origo 38). These horror stories and many more like them were circulated through radio and newspaper, spreading the news to anyone who would listen. Hynes asks “were those attacks atrocities?” (Hynes 228) and to those who fought the war deemed them not. Through the eyes of the combatants, these attacks on cities were inevitable given the known consequences of the weapons used. Even Origo herself says, on May 2nd, in a footnote about the amusement park shooting, “these tents may, of course, have been mistaken for military ones” (Origo 29). So how even if the air raiders knowingly bombed or machine-gunned innocent people, there will always be excuses in which these potential “atrocities” could be justified. 

        There are many civilian war narratives in the world, ranging from all wars, spoken from many different points of view, but Samuel Hynes himself says “the best of those narratives are by women” (Hynes 229). This may be because there were more women than men as civilians in the cities at the time of the wars or because those civilian narratives written by men would probably just be sorrowful and depressing, constantly dwelling on the fact they are not fighting the war themselves. “They oppose, they protect, and they survive” (Hynes 229) is the diagnoses Hynes gives for the women of World War II’s war stories, which is supported fully by Iris Origo’s diary, in which she does all three: she opposes the Fascist government by housing prisoners of war and helping them escape German soldiers and she does all she can to protect herself, the prisoners of war, her husband, her home, her valuables, her children and the foster children from the consequences of total war. And even though Origo does suffer, as Hynes says she did, she does so in such a way that she never lets the suffering break her, staying strong willed and kind hearted all the way to the end.

Hynes, Samuel. "Agents and Sufferers." The Soldiers' Tale: Bearing Witness to Modern War. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: A. Lane, 1997. 223-77. Print.

Origo, Iris. War in Val D'Orcia. Boston: D.R. Godine, 1984. Print.