Oh, William

Lucy and William have no direct experience of WWII, yet the historic conflict has lasting implications on their lives as they were both raised by people who did live through or participate in the war. Lucy’s father served on the Allied side in Germany, and his unprocessed experiences there led to uncontrollable sexual compulsions. Lucy’s refusal to say “anything more about this” speaks to the shame and silence that surrounds trauma and suggests that she has inherited a portion of her father’s own feelings (93). Strout illustrates the persistence of trauma in the rural Maine landscape, even generations after the original conflict. In the novel, rural Maine is now populated with distraught Vietnam and Iraq veterans who make Lucy think that “I had not seen a stranger look at me with such fury since I was a child” (195). She thus speaks to a social problem, where returning veterans are not given the support they need to move on from the moment of conflict and are thus still reacting to it. Strout draws a direct parallel between the unresolved trauma of veterans and the way Lucy and William are also defined or limited by their past experiences.

Exacerbating her father’s post-traumatic stress, Lucy’s family lives in poverty and without modern conveniences, such as a television, that would make them feel that they have moved on from the 1940s with the rest of the world.