Home Front Girl: A Diary of Love, Literature, and Growing Up in Wartime America

Home Front Girl: A Diary of Love, Literature, and Growing Up in Wartime America — page 7
PREFACE of working-class families she found employment herself most regularly as a camp counselor every summer She also volun teered at various organizations such as Billings Hospital and the House of Happiness where she taught nature study to children As a scholarship student at the University of Chicago junior college junior and senior years in high school and then as an undergraduate at the U of C from 1940 to 1944 Joan was an intelligent humorous insightful self-mocking and pensive reader of her times and the people around her Her diary gives us an impression of certain aspects of cul tural and psychological importance not readily seen in history books Joan weaves personal reflections on love nature and God with commentary on contemporary political events Habitually late for school Joan shows her naïveté through out her diary For example she indicates sympathy for Charles Lindbergh’s isolationism before the entry of the United States into the war She interweaves the hijinks of her high school and college crowd with insights into cultural events She hears radio shows no television then and goes to the movies quite often no streaming films on her computer Her love life is that of a typical teenager she realizes when she is experienc ing a silly crush and relates how various passions peter out or develop into necking Joan offers us more than mere historical color She alter nates between being a flighty teenager and a budding poet she falls passionately and frequently in love she makes fun of herself yet reflects seriously on political crises nature religion and poetry Her reactions to world events can be pro found reflections on the impending death of her generation As early as 1937 Joan believes that the year 1940 will be a decisive year in history A pacifist she learns to bandage for xiii