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Part 1: 31 Jan, 1946
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Literature and Connection
Family, Parenting, and Legitimacy
War, Hunger, and Humanity
Women, Marriage, and Work
Summary
Analysis
Juliet replies to Dawsey, thanking him for his story about the pig roast, and asks him if he'd tell her more about the Society. She tells him about writing under the name Izzy Bickerstaff during the war and says that now, she'd like to write a book under her own name. She explains that the Times has asked her to write three articles about the value of reading and she would like to include the Society in the article.
Juliet recognizes that the Society was something special, given that it was one of the primary ways in which islanders were able to make it through the war. Her implication that the Society will be able to show the value of reading indicates how highly Juliet herself thinks of reading.
Themes
Juliet tells Dawsey about the "Doodlebugs:" they were bombs. They came during the day and were so fast, there was no time to take cover. A person was fine if they could hear them, but as soon as the noise stopped, it meant there were 30 seconds before the bomb hit. She saw one fall once; women watching from an open window were sucked out by the force of the blast. Juliet remarks that it seems impossible that they all could've laughed at such a cartoon, but she supposes that it's true that humor is the best way to get through difficult times.
As Juliet describes the Doodlebugs, it becomes clear that her experience of the war was horrific and damaging. When she talks about the value of humor and cartoons like this one, she suggests that because Londoners had access to papers that printed such things, those papers performed much the same purpose as the Literary Society did on Guernsey.
Themes
