Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant’s Shadow Shapes is a remarkable piece of literature that truly captures this young woman’s accounts of war. Her stories clearly show her views of the war and how she felt, being a part of it. From it we learn what the First World War was like for a nurse injured over seas. Being told first hand, and from her own accounts, Sergeant clearly shows the position of the women during World War I.Gender plays a major role in this excerpt from Sergeant’s Shadow Shapes. The author refers to gender many times throughout the piece. This easier seen when looking at the piece in regards to gendered societal positions, as discussed in Higonnet and Higonnet’s The Double Helix. Sergeant’s own view of her position in the war gives a clear example of how a woman’s role in society is still that of less than a man, even though she is injured in war. Through Sergeant’s accounts society’s views if gender are also shown when she is being transferred to another hospital. Gender is used throughout the piece. It appears that the story is told mostly through a male point of view, which is interesting especially since this is an autobiographical account of a woman’s experience. However Sergeant herself looks at the war as a “male” event, even though she herself is participating. We see this first when she states “Every American in Europe today , however bad his fate, feels in his heart of hearts glad to be here.”(p. 77) Clearly she does not see herself as an active participate, because she does not include her own sex when she discusses feelings of war and being overseas. It is almost as if her own position is trivial to that of a mans, the spirit of unanimity that she feels doesn’t fully include her as a woman.The next time Sergeant speaks of this feeling of unanimisme, is when she is being taken to get x-rayed. It is at this point again that we see Se...
