50 pages • 1 hour read
Willa CatherOne Of Ours
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1922A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Book 4
Book 4 Summary: “The Voyage of the Anchises”
Along with 2,500 fellow soldiers, Claude sets sail for France on a ship called the Anchises. Many of the soldiers he meets are originally from small towns much like his own. He meets Lieutenant Bird, a soft-spoken young man originally from Virginia who was working at his uncle’s Topeka bank when he enlisted. He also meets Victor Morse, an adventurous young man who journeyed from small town Iowa to serve as a fighter pilot in the British air brigade.
Despite his humble roots, Victor has developed a British accent and presents himself as a worldly European. Claude reflects that “taken one by one, they were ordinary fellows like himself. Yet here they were. And in this massing and movement of men there was nothing mean or common; he was sure of that” (465). As Claude becomes close friends with Victor, he suspects that Victor may be exaggerating some of his exploits. He nevertheless accepts Victor at his word. Victor promises to meet Claude in London someday, show him around the city, and take him to dine at a fine, exclusive establishment.
An influenza epidemic breaks out aboard the Anchises. Many soldiers fall gravely ill, and Lieutenant Bird becomes one of the first casualties. The ship’s doctor, Doctor Trueman, enlists Claude as a medical assistant, and Claude proves very competent in his role. Doctor Trueman even remarks that Claude seems to “enjoy” his life aboard the Anchises in spite of the deadly atmosphere. Working for a cause much greater than himself, Claude finds the sense of purpose and belonging he always sought.
During the epidemic, Lieutenant Tod Fanning becomes especially ill and has great difficulty digesting food. Doctor Trueman prescribes him a gentle diet of eggs and orange juice; these prove to be the only nourishing foods he can keep down. In spite of this prescription, the ship’s Chief Steward hoards large cartons of eggs and juice in his office, claiming a shortage of these items. Doctor Trueman and Claude are forced to argue with the Chief Steward until he fairly distributes these items among his crew. Shortly afterward, the Chief Steward ironically becomes ill himself.
As the Anchises pulls into France, Claude reflects on the ways this rugged shoreline contradicts headlines he’s read of “bleeding France.” He feels that he as “never seen anything that looked so strong, so self-sufficient, so fixed from the first foundation”; the ocean appears “meek” and “submissive” by contrast (522). Claude resolves that the American soldiers must rise to match the strength of this country.
Book 4 Analysis
Book 4 shows how the Great War transforms the lives of many small town men much like Claude, providing comparable examples of Lieutenant Bird, Lieutenant Morse, and Lieutenant Fanning. By involving these small town American men in a broader struggle much bigger than themselves, and removing them from their home environments and day-to-day lives, the war gives them a new sense of purpose and identity. For men who previously lacked purpose, like Claude, and for men seeking adventure, like Victor, the war offers a welcome change and an opportunity to see the world.
As Claude demonstrates competence in his medical assistant role alongside Doctor Trueman, he also feels a strong sense of belonging—being “one of ours”—beyond anything he ever felt in Lovely Creek. Happy to selflessly give himself over to a shared struggle, he actively assists Doctor Trueman as he fights against the selfishness of others, like the Chief Steward. Through this particular example, Cather suggests that the Germans are not the only enemy with which American soldiers must contend. For some soldiers, the greatest enemies are the self-serving and short-sighted “allies” among their own troops.
By titling Book 4 “Voyage of the Anchises,” Cather continues developing transit as a metaphor for Claude’s life transitions. Cather’s opening descriptions not only suggest the internal changes Claude is going through but also the massive shifts and forward-moving evolutions taking place within all the soldiers onboard. Thus, the voyage of the Anchises becomes a symbolic personal odyssey for every American soldier traveling to France.
By the end of Book 4, when the ship arrives in France, Claude contemplates this new shore in a way that reveals how much his notions of masculine identity and American identity have matured. Herein, the shores of France become a metaphor for Claude’s own development: Though he previously thought of himself as broken and “bleeding”—unable to find meaning in his life on Lovely Creek, unable to connect with his wife—he now feels “strong” and “self-sufficient.” Likewise, Claude’s identity as an American soldier aligns with his desire to protect these shores. Although foreign by name, they immediately feel like home, like an extension of his own psyche.
Book 4 presents developments that could have diminished Claude’s feelings of optimism, such as the influenza epidemic on the Anchises, but these developments only deepen his conviction. Book 4 also presents a number of somewhat callous and suspect justifications for Claude’s heroic feelings, such as his reflections on the deaths aboard the Anchises:
Tannhauser and the gentle Virginian, and so many others who had set out with him, were never to have any life at all, or even a soldier’s death. They were merely waste in a great enterprise, thrown overboard like rotten ropes. For them this kind release—trees and a still shore and quiet water—was never, never to be (523).
Passages such as these raise compelling questions about the novel’s possible glorification of war, for which numerous writers criticized Cather.
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