Deep Dive Into Jane Lee

The War That I Finally Won- Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

  World War Two was hardly a time where anyone dared to feel.

It was a time where everyone was kept up behind the brittle doors of their houses, dead silent, and tearfully awaiting news of their beloved, or wondering if the war was ever going to end. It was easier to be unfeeling in the midst of a war.

In this beautiful sequel to the book ‘The War that saved my life’, the book continues the story of Ava and her family and friends, and once again it’s emotionally grasping words has left me awed, and inspired.

Kimberly’s style of writing is something to be admired of. Her simple but deep words have been strung together to create an orchestra of feeling. Every word is not wasted- nor are there extravagant words that simply flounce across the pages and our minds. Bradley’s writing is simple- yet strong- thick and bold.

Her writing seems to consist of that innocent grievance from Ava. That sliver of hope underneath all the tough words. Kimberly is an excellent writer that truly portrayed the young mind of Ava.

The first book begins with Ava’s harsh and cruel mother. Ava’s mother, Mam, locks Ava up with no reason than the reason that Ava’s foot is a disabled and unattractive club foot. The scene unfolds as we start to get to know more about Ava and her life as an imprisoned young girl. It begins by Ava’s desire to go outside and forget about her mother. She’s in this denial that her mother is a monster, and the second book carries this denial with this one sentence:

“You can know things all you like, but that doesn’t mean you believe them.”

The second book’s beginning begins with Ava after her successful surgery for her club foot, receiving the news of her mother being dead. The symbolism of her club foot being healed, which she believed was her failure all her life, seems to be as though an invisible chain that indicates her mother’s death, as her mother was the reason her foot had not been healed. For Ava, her mother’s death meant that there was no one to destroy her chances of being able to be herself, and essentially, be free.

The book continues with Ava’s constant worry of getting replaced or kicked out by Susan, who had become Ava and Jamie’s guardian while secretly evacuating the city they lived in. (As children often evacuated to a peaceful place without their parents when wars were happening, they were able to escape their mother and find a new place, which led to them staying with Susan, who then became their legal guardian) She’s wary of Susan’s kindness, and she wonders if Susan actually loves her. Ava believes that sooner or later, her peacefulness will end.  She gets irritated with Jamie (her younger brother) for being able to easily trust Susan as his mother- when she herself is struggling to admit that Susan will always love her.

The book continues to revolve around Ava’s worries and guilt- and the whole wariness that happened in the world war. As Ruth, an Jew, joins the already cramped house, Ava’s wariness gets tested to the limit. Between stony Lady Thorton and German Ruth, Ava has to decide whether she can trust anyone, or whether she should not. She’s constantly confused- which leaves the readers, which most would have experienced love from their parents, to feel pity and sorrow, as did I, because Ava could not understand in the beginning that love isn’t impossible.

This book was about learning to trust. Lady Thorton hated Ruth because she was German, because her son Johnathan was out in the war fighting against Germans. but she manages to trust and admire her in the end. So did Maggie.

But I think the biggest event of all is that Ava realizes that Susan will always love her.  

The book showcases Ava’s breaking point of her wariness was when Susan fell ill. At first, she believes that she is ok without Susan. But her worries, her fears that Susan, the mother who she never got in the beginning of her life, might die, tell her that she loves Susan, and that Susan will always love her no matter what.

Like Ava, in the midst of the Second World War, thousands of children and adults alike lost their ability to love, or to feel. Many were neglected, suddenly died, and were wrongly accused. Just like Ava was neglected. Just like Johnathan died. Just like Ruth was wrongly accused. There were and still are today millions of stories that did not make it to the headlines of the news. There are people who still carry that wariness, that sad, hopeless, and stony feeling Ava had in the beginning of the story. Because although World Peace seems like reality, we are hardly close to it.

I think this book was an amazing book that truly showed to us the small giants of the war. People like Susan, people like Ruth, and all those people who believed in people, who refused to give up, who never shirked, never shied, was fair. This book showed us who we need to be.

The real heroes of the story are the people who are heroic when they are in danger. So let us become Susan, become Ruth, and tend our own Ava’s to becoming their true, and beautiful self.

Thank you.