"Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid" by Virginia Woolf

Questions that the author attempts to answer:
1. What is the role of women during World War II?
2. How can the world achieve global peace?
3. Are men naturally inclined to be disruptors in the peace process?


While fighting a war against fascism and Nazism, the British people believed they were fighting a war to defend freedom. This stance is taken by world powers as they feel war is the justified when the enemy is assaulting the freedom of a sovereign country. Virginia Woolf, in her piece "Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid", describes it simply, from England's point-of-view, to "defeat [Hitler], and you will be free" (2).  While Woolf considers the airmen to be true heroes defending her country, she in part, believes, that the men are the disruptors of peace and freedom that she yearns for. She takes a very feminist position as she champions womanhood in an age of chaos.

            Woolf using very vivid language, a prominent feature of this peace, describes a flowing current that is "fast and furious" created by all-male politicians (2). She is alluding to the belligerence and aggressive nature of males as they combat this attack by "[whirling] young airmen up into the sky" (2). Albeit critical of this way of thinking, Woolf does give thanks to men by acknowledging that if they lose, then so do the women. That is the stance she should take because if her country were to lose to the Nazis, her way of life would be a lot worse than before.

            The imagery that she uses at the beginning of her paragraphs was rhetorically very powerful. It gives the reader a clear image of the torment that citizens had to go through and they can be put into the same situation as they hope for peace from the darkness that overwhelmed their lives. With the intended audience being women, Woolf champions a woman's role as a true comforter in an attempt for global peace. Woolf highlights that women would do anything for the sake of peace in the world, even restricting their reproductive privileges (3). Women can just be as powerful as men in creating peace and freedom throughout the world.