Our reading from Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth has been thought provoking.  What I appreciate most about this narrative is that Brittain writes intimately, but also institutes a certain distance between herself and the reader.  She successfully shares very emotional material in a logical, nearly mechanical way.  I know that's an oxymoronic way to describe it, but I think that's a consequence of the multifaceted issues that war provokes.  For instance, Brittain decides to become a nurse at Devonshire hospital because she feels that to pursue her studies at the university would, for the time being, be wasteful.  However, her tasks at the hospital are often tedious and unskilled.  I'm not saying that her service at the hospital was unimportant, I'm simply observing that her priorities were strongly influenced by her environment rather than a set list of ideals. But of course, her ideals shaped her actions...so we come full circle.

On a different note, Brittain's description of the mortality that Roland had witnessed that "had come to have a great attraction for him" was highly reminiscent of Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage.  Interestingly, neither writer ever went to battle. Crane described death as a "red badge of courage" that allured soldiers into its grasp.  I suppose that for the men of WWI this kind of grim mentality must also have affected many soldiers, considering that they wouldn't have known what to expect of a post-war planet after years in trenches, surrounded by modern technology and brutality.