Fatima Saavedra

HIST 347
April 30, 2014

Final Memo: The Backwash of War

War takes victims. War takes casualties. War doesnt care who dies or who lives. It must
have been tough for the nurses and doctors at the front. There are so many possible wounds to
be treated, and there were so many casualties in this war. There wasnt much medicine to
relieve the pain, and the men were being treated in pretty unsanitary conditions. I find that in
many of the essays that Motte wrote she found the effects of the war to be numbing-not just to
the nurses but to the families as well.
Motte talks about how the hospital seemed to be a factory of sorts-fixing up the men
who could be fixed up only to be sent back to the front. They were like items. If there was a
death, then it was just part of normal hospital work. One had to move on because there were
so many other injured that needed the help of the nurses, doctors, and surgeons. These
professionals, in the midst of the war, where the ones that were in charge of so many lives.
The men that could be fixed were taken to be fixed, and then one they recovered they were
sent off to go back to the war. It makes one wonder if there were men that simply went crazy
after so many treatments at the hospitals at the front. Were they of sane mind to continue
going on in the war?
Motte and Borden both have cases of suicide in the hospitals they work in. In Bordens
case, she builds up a story for the man who wanted to take his own life. She victimizes him, and
says that he wanted to die after having survived his operation. Borden continues to think that
the man wants to die, and she eventually plays a part in his death. One has to wonder if that is

Fatima Saavedra
HIST 347
April 30, 2014

really what the man wanted. He had been shot in the head, so his brain might have been
impaired. Was he really in his right mind for Borden to assume that he still wanted to die? In
Mottes case she doesnt really delve into the life of the man that she is treating. She just states
simple facts. There really isnt much emotion in her essays. She seems to be far away from her
writing. She is more of an isolated woman. There is more of a detachment in Mottes essays
than there was in Bordens essays. However, both women question the fact that these men,
who committed suicide, are going to die anyway, so what is the purpose of saving them?
Motte wrote an essay about a young Belgian boy that was caught by shrapnel in the
stomach. She mentions how he was about ten years old. I find that this essay helps illuminate
the world of war. There werent just soldiers constantly dying. There were also civilians that
were caught in the midst of the war. Its quite terrifying to imagine a life of war. One can hide
and take shelter, but there is really no guarantee of survival. There isnt a complete guarantee
that one will survive the war, and that makes things a lot scarier. This young boy that Motte
mentions in her essay was visited by his mother. His mother seems to be very emotionally
detached from the boy. Its not what the way that one would expect a mother to react. Instead
of crying or demanding to stay by the boys bedside, the mother wants to return to her home.
She says that her other children still need taking care of, and that her husband needs her at
home. The doctor in charge is disturbed by her actions and thoughts. She mentions that she left
two boys in England and that if one of them were in danger of dying that she wouldnt hesitate
to head back. I think this story helps emphasize that war causes emotional turmoil. Instead of
having the time to grieve properly, one starts to become numb to the atrocities of war.

Fatima Saavedra
HIST 347
April 30, 2014

Motte and Borden also talk about how some men took priority over others. Men that
could survive took priority over those who were not intended to live. They tried to make the
dying as comfortable as possible. Motte talks about a man who couldnt be relieved from pain.
He had been given morphine, yet he was still in immense pain. As a nurse or doctor it must
have been a really hard thing to have to witness so much pain. A pain of a patient so immense,
yet there is nothing one can do to alleviate it. The hospitals of the war were crowded. Some
days were peaceful, and some days were chaotic. It must have been extremely hard to maintain
a semblance of a regular schedule. I cant imagine that a hospital was ever completely barren of
an injured man.
I find that Motte was more of a gentle writer. Borden seemed to be a much more vivid
writer. Borden described injuries, conditions, and happenings quite descriptively. I find that
Motte was much more interested in people that happened to come by the hospital. Borden had
a way of dehumanizing the patients of the hospitals. She would often say that the men in the
hospital had inhumane howls of pain. She would compare them to animals. Borden also
referred and identified the men by the injuries they sustained. She rarely talked about the
mens faces. Borden was a much more detached character. Motte talked about the patients
more freely. She described their personalities more. She individualized them. Many of her
essays talk about the patients in the hospital. Motte was also not as descriptive about the
injuries the men sustained. She was more eloquent. She wasnt as gory in her descriptions as
Borden was.

Fatima Saavedra
HIST 347
April 30, 2014

Motte included a range of characters in her essays. She talked about the doctors in
charge, the Generals who came to visit, other hospital nurses and surgeons, and the people
that the soldiers deaths affected-like wives and family. She had a couple essays that were also
seen to be of an outside character. Instead of being told from her point of view, she tried to
include the patients point of view. Sometimes she was the outsider looking in. She described
more emotions in her essays. She wasnt a gory person. She looked more towards a person. She
was detached, but she wasnt insensitive to the humanity that still thrived in the soldiers.
In her essays, Motte had a more humane point of view. She analyzed situations, and she
tried her best to establish a story and a connection. However, Motte seemed to be more bland
in her essays. She was descriptive, but there seemed to be a lack of emotion behind her words.
Its as if she was just recounting a normal story. Many nurses and doctors had to become
emotionally detached in the war. They couldnt afford to let their sentimentality conquer them
when there were constant lives to be saved. There wasnt enough time to grieve for those
soldiers that werent going to make it. There wasnt enough time to get to know the patientsnot when there so many that were constantly injured.
As a nurse, doctor, or surgeon in a war Id say that becoming a robot is part of what they
had to go through. There wasnt time for emotions or feelings during the war. There wasnt
time to feel sorry for oneself. They had to continue to work because without them constantly
fighting to keep death at bay there would have been so many more deaths. One had to grow
accustomed to misfortunes of the war. One had to grow used to seeing grievous wounds and
bodies.
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