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Chapter 9
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Long Long Way, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Youth, Naivety, and Growing Up
The Horrors of War
Family, Camaraderie, and Love
Political Conflict and Divided Loyalties
Resilience and Shared Humanity
Summary
Analysis
Willie and his fellow soldiers are in a glass building with 20 bathtubs. They bathe happily, enjoying the hot water and the feeling of cleanliness. They joke and appreciate one another’s company. Willie laughs with the other men, but he also imagines their tubs turning into tombstones. Then he imagines God plucking them out of their tubs one by one—like fish out of a river—and devouring them in the underworld.
The soldiers benefit greatly from their camaraderie with one another, which showcases the value of friendship and human connection. At the same time, the trauma of war doesn’t easily fade from their minds, and Willie can’t help but think of death even in a moment of peace, safety, and happiness. Willie feels like all of the soldiers—himself included—might be doomed.
Themes
Later, the soldiers convert a shed into a makeshift concert hall. One man sings a passionate ballad that reminds every listener of precious things from his own past. Next, Pete O’Hara plays the piano and sings “Roses of Picardy,” which makes the audience weep. Seeing men comfort one another, Willie wonders if they’re capable of living as ordinary people again or if peace and wholeness belong solely to their past.
Music is profoundly meaningful to the soldiers. Singing not only helps distract them from the suffering they’ve endured on the Western Front but also brings them together and reminds them of goodness in the world. However, Willie isn’t sure if soldiers like him will ever be part of that goodness again, or if they’ve been permanently corrupted or damaged by war.
Themes
Then Christy Moran asks Willie to sing the “Ave Maria.” Willie is confident he knows the piece well now; after his mistake in the singing competition, he remembers the piano part that comes in between the two verses. As Willie sings, his voice is clear and angelic. For the listening soldiers, the hymn speaks to the tension between their everyday hopefulness and the constant dangers they face. The hymn also evokes their Catholic faith, reminding them of the Hail Mary prayer they learned in their childhoods.
Willie’s ability to sing the “Ave Maria” confidently now represents the personal growth Willie has undergone. He is prepared for his performance in a way that symbolically reflects the maturity and experience he’s gained since he joined the war. Willie has lost much of his childhood ignorance and naivety at this point. Overall, Willie’s singing points to the importance of music and faith in the soldiers’ lives. As all the men find meaning in the “Ave Maria,” the novel underscores their shared humanity.
Themes
Willie suddenly remembers a long-forgotten memory. When he was a child and his mother died from giving birth to Dolly, Willie snuck into the room to see his mother. He sang the “Ave Maria” to her then, just as he sings the same hymn to his fellow soldiers now.
In this moment, the “Ave Maria” transforms into a symbol of Willie’s love and grief for his mother. That Willie sings this hymn to his fellow soldiers implies that he feels a similar loving connection to them. Ominously, this link also suggests that just as Willie sang to his mother after she died, Willie sings now to people who are doomed to die.
Themes
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