“When a war was ended, the men lost their lives. But the women lost everything else.”
More often than not, the novels which deal with war focus on the way in which men are affected and their struggles as they navigate the horrors of war. These men deal with the constant threat of losing their lives and shortages of food and illness. However, as the narrator argues, women most often deal with a lot more than the men on the battlefield, yet their plight remains unnoticed. Those who are left back home have to deal with lack of food and illness as well, sometimes on a more profound level, as all the available resources are sent to the front. They are left without any protection and are always under threat of being killed, raped or taken by the enemy. They also have to deal with the knowledge that they may lose their husbands, sons, fathers or any other male relatives that are going to fight in the war. In this sense, while it is not often discussed, women loss a lot more than men when a war was over, more often than not for the simple fact that they were the only ones left alive to deal with the destroyed world the men left after they finished fighting.
“Who could love a coward?' She had once heard a woman say. Laodamia knew the answer. Someone for whom the alternative is loving a corpse.”
Through this quote, the narrator tears down one of the main reason men go to men: to prove their bravery. But, as it is expressed here, for those close to the men going to war, the idea that the men close to them will die just to prove they are brave means nothing. Instead, those left behind would rather live with someone labeled as a "coward" than loving the memory of someone who died as a brave man.
“She had already learned that the worst dreams were not the ones where the flaming walls were crashing down on you, or where armed men were chasing you, or where your beloved menfolk were dying before your eyes. They were the ones when your husband lived again, when your son still smiled, when your daughter looked forward to her wedding.”
The main character lost a lot due to the ravages of war. This quote presents the aftermath of such an experience, where the living are left to deal with the trauma of having survived a war and losing those they loved. For those people, as the narrator points out, the memories of the past no longer cause them pain. However, the most painful thing is the what-ifs, the questions about a hypothetical future where everyone still lived, and no one was locked in the horrors of the past.
