The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism.

The German U-boat on the beach at Hazelbourne-on-Sea is a symbol of the lasting impacts of the war in 1919 and of the way the public would prefer to hide or ignore them rather than face the new normal. It represents the way the public thinks of veterans as heroes but would rather not witness the physical ravages of the war on their bodies, so they are denied employment or hidden away in convalescent homes. Similarly, it represents the ways in which women in the novel are expected to remove themselves from the public sphere and resume their domestic roles. The symbol is made explicit by Constance, who considers the U-boat’s removal “liable to be a long process” (37), just as the population’s recovery and acceptance of social change would be. This image is ambiguous, however, as Constance wonders why people “[a]re in such a rush to have the war towed away and tided up anyway. Memories fade[], scabbed over by the layers of time. Perhaps a lasting peace require[s] some rusting reminders of carnage?” (41). Constance’s words highlight the futility of trying to ignore the lasting impacts of war on society.