References to World War Two in chapter 2

We learn that the events from the narrator's childhood described in chapter 2 took place in the times of  World War II because there are many references to it.

First of all, there are many references to the feared enemies: the Germans, and to the Blitz, i.e. the German bombardment of the United Kingdom. Mr Haywards has taken out the wheels of his car “to prevent its being commandeered, as Keith explained, by invading Germans.” (Picador, page 23), and he is planning to use his revolver “to give any invading German a nasty surprise.”(page 23)  Once the two boys saw “a crashed German plane with the pilot sitting dead in the cockpit” (page 21), and there is “an air-raid shelter” in Keith´s garden. Clearly these last quotations refer to German attacks on England, and to one of the ways in which people took refuge from them. (In class, we also mentioned how, in London, people used the railway stations as shelters)

 

There are also some references to the way in which the war affected citizens´ every day lives: many of the men in the street are “away in the Services”, Mr Hayward can´t use his car because of  the shortage of petrol brought about by the war, and  Stephen mentions that leisure has been suspended for the “Duration”. Stephen capitalises this word to show how in his childhood there was so much talk about the duration of the war, that he thought it was a fixed phrase.

There is a reference to the “Jews” as well, who live in Trewinnick, the “mysterious house where the blackout are always drawn.” We wonder if the poor Jewish people living there are so terrified by the Holocaust that they don't dare open their windows but Keith and Stephen  took them for a sinister organization, and they called them the “Juice”.

Last but not least, the war is even present in the metaphoric language used to describe Stephen and Keith´s relationship: they are a “two-man army”. Keith is an “officer corps”, and Stephen is the “other ranks”.

In conclusion, the historical context pervades the descriptions of the characters and the houses in the Close in chapter 2, and makes us feel that War World 2 is in the air.