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Chapter 10
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
On May 3, 1916, Willie writes a letter to his father. Willie is relieved that his family is safe and comments how dreadful the news from Dublin has been, especially about Sackville Street being ruined and Countess Markievicz shooting a British army recruit in St. Stephen’s Green. Willie ends his letter by praising his fellow Irish soldiers as “wonderful lads.”
Here, the novel alludes to more details of the historical Easter Rising. Countess Markievicz was a real-life Irish nationalist revolutionary. She famously participated in the Rising, and her role in the rebellion highlights that women have been influential in Ireland’s political conflicts as well.
Themes
Then Willie talks with Pete O’Hara, Joe Kielty, and Quigley about the most recent news from Ireland, which O’Hara reads from the newspaper. The leaders of the insurrection in Dublin have been court-martialed, with three of them executed already. Willie’s friends tentatively say that the executions were right to happen, but Joe Kielty admits his hope that no more of the rebels will be killed. Later, O’Hara expresses bewilderment and anger that the Irish rebels wanted the Germans as their allies, which makes the Irish soldiers in the British army enemies to their own countrymen. O’Hara confesses he wishes that the rebel leaders hadn’t been shot, and Willie agrees, surprised at his own conviction.
The aftermath of the quelled Easter Rising puts Willie and his comrades in a difficult position. They feel that they should denounce the rebels, but doing so would seem like betraying their own countrymen. At the same time, sympathizing with the executed insurgents means implicitly condemning the British Army—to which Willie and his friends belong. Therefore, the soldiers feel conflicted about where their loyalties should lie. In this uncomfortable uncertainty, Willie develops his own opinion sympathizing with the rebels, which demonstrates that he is gradually coming to know his own mind.
Themes
The next day, Willie sends another letter to his father. In it, he writes that he wishes the three rebel leaders hadn’t been shot. He also asks what John Redmond is saying about the executions. Willie anticipates that his father will be angry with the letter, so he assures his father that he’s still proud to wear his uniform and loyal to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Additionally, Willie sends a postcard of Ypres to Gretta, thanking her for her “kind and interesting” postcard of the now-ruined Sackville Street.
Willie is starting to think for himself and express his own opinions. Implicitly, he knows that his feelings about the executions—and especially his curiosity about Redmond—will cause conflict with his unionist father because these feelings carry hints of nationalist sentiment. So, Willie expresses his opinion timidly and defers to his father’s deeply held beliefs about allegiance to England. Meanwhile, Willie’s humorously inappropriate response to Gretta shows that Willie wants to connect with her but is doing so awkwardly and imperfectly.
Themes
That night, Willie’s company is billeted in an abandoned factory. As Willie sleeps, he dreams that he’s back in the trenches. The German soldier he killed is only a few feet away, filling a small box with seeds. The German soldier catches a pigeon, and Willie earnestly wants him to kill and eat it. Instead, the German soldier lets the pigeon fly away into the sky and gazes at Willie with his arms raised aloft.
Willie is haunted by the memory of the German soldier he killed, and he desperately wishes that the German soldier were still alive. Willie’s dream reveals that he views the German soldier as a noble, self-sacrificing, and even saintlike figure.
Themes
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