To Have and to Hold: Marriage and Masculinity in World War II

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"Darling remember that I love you more than anything in the world. I love you, I love you.

Your Loving Husband"

June 25, 1944

While popular media during WWII depicted soldiers as cold, unemotional fighting machines, soldiers’ personal correspondence reveals a more compassionate, romantic side, as illustrated by a case study of the letters of Howard Sarty. 

Background

Though research has been done on the masculinity of men and also the importance of personal letters during World War II, there has not been research connecting the two. I have analyzed a specific set of World War II letters written by Howard Sarty, which have not been published or released to the public. I have found and analyzed propaganda as well as advertisements as primary sources depicting the standard “strong and courageous” soldiers. To reinforce my claims I have utilized several secondary sources. These secondary sources contain information analyzing the masculinity of men during the war as well as analyzing letter writing and its importance.

This research will show a different  side of the soldier than what is portrayed by the media. I became interested in this topic during my transcription of the letters. In a section of the letters, Howard and his girlfriend Yvette get married on one of Howard’s furloughs. Preceding this is the preparation he undergoes to get married. Around this time Howard is especially romantic. All of the loving talk seemed to contradict the typical tough solder façade depicted in World War II propaganda and advertisements. As a result I decided to compare the two.

 

Not So Tough After All 

While soldiers were shown to be tough and manly, when it came to personal correspondences, this was not the case. They often showed a deeper, more emotional side when writing to their families and friends. Through writing letters, they were able to escape the hardships of war. One way of doing that was to write about less of the difficult things and more on their feelings. The letters from Howard to Yvette prove to be an example of this. (5) He was very romantic and longing of her in his letters, writing “I love you” over 1,700 times in his almost daily letters, including writing the words backwards, upside down, and in Finnish.

After analyzing a majority of the letters, it was clear that he based the format of the letters around telling her he loved her and that he could not wait to be with her again. Also, in the two years prior to getting married, through his letters he asked Yvette to marry him 16 times. Additionally, before they were married, he expressed many doubts about whether or not she really wants to marry him. Besides telling her he loved her multiple times along with constantly expressing his feelings, Howard often refrained from explicitly stating where he was courageous or especially strong. In one letter on November 27, 1945, he explicitly stated in his letter, “Right now… they having a muscle match [sic]…I’m the weakest guy here so it’s no use for me to enter." (6) Howard was always quick to express his love but hesitant to exhibit his strengths. Howard is just one example showing how, even though the soldiers were supposed to be cold, fighting machines, they actually had a deeper side that they expressed through letters.

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Figure 4

This is the cover of the June 17, 1944 edition of the Saturday Evening Post. The soldier is happily opening his letters on mail day. This edition focuses on the importance of mail to the soldiers. (7)

The More the Merrier 

Letters were a major morale booster for soldiers. Mail in general, as quoted by Litoff, was “like manna from heaven” for soldiers fighting in the war. (8) On the home front, writing letters was highly encouraged to help the soldiers overseas, with features in magazines, advertisements, government posters and even songs, emphasizing the importance they had. Often times, churches or other local establishments would get together and write letters to soldiers in an attempt to cheer them up during their service.In the case of Howard Sarty, he wrote to his girlfriend (later wife) almost daily, sending approximately 550 letters over the course of about 3 years in the military. Yvette, when she felt he was not writing often enough, would send him blank pieces of paper in an attempt to encourage him to write more. Also, if a period of days had passed without writing, in Howard’s following letter he would apologize for not being able to write during that time. All of these are specific examples of how important letter writing was, both to Howard and Yvette. In addition, Montgomerie, in her book analyzing letter writing during World War II, studied letters from a war wife, Gay Gray, who ran a newspaper and advocated for constant letter writing to soldiers. (9) Gay Gray wrote often to her husband who was serving and had difficulty when he was captured as a prisoner of war and was restricted on the amount of times she could write him. Going from almost constant letter writing to only once every few months was devastating. It was a major relief when he was finally liberated. Even though the amount of letters was heavily restricted, the letters themselves became very important and helped him persevere. Overall, when it came to soldiers, their day was always brighter at mail call.

Conclusion 

Overall, the media portrayed that men were supposed to be strong and tough soldiers, but they showed a softer, more romantic side through their personal letters to wives and girlfriends, such as the case of Howard Sarty. Through the photos used on propaganda and advertisements, it is clear that standards were high for men to be strong but they showed the opposite by digging into their emotional side, revealing that they were not as strong as they were portrayed. During World War II many soldiers were sent overseas, many drafted, many volunteered but rarely did they ever look like they were shown by the media. These men had emotions that they released through their personal correspondences through both the amount of letters sent and the content they had.

 

Endnotes

(1)"Grapefruit Juice Ad," Flickr, Christian Montone (contributer), uploaded November 19, 2009, https://www.flickr.com/photos/christianmontone/4117709476

(2) "Man the Guns-Join the Navy," Wikimedia Commons, last modified January 12, 2014, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Man_the_guns-Join_the_Navy%22_-_NARA_-_513519.jpg

(3) Christina S. Jarvis, The Male Body at War: American Masculinity during World War II (Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2004), 44. 

(4) Howard Sarty to Yvette Langlais, January 1, 1943

(5) Howard Sarty to Yvette Langlais. May 2, 1942-Dec. 14,1945.

(6) Howard Sarty to Yvette Langlais, 27, November 1945.  

(7) Howard Scott, Baby Booties at Boot Camp, Saturday Evening Post cover, June 17, 1944

(8) Judy Barrett Litoff, David C. Smith, “’Will He Get My Letter?” Popular Portrayals of Mail and Morale During World War II,” Journal of Popular Culture 23, no. 4 (1990): 21-43.

(9) Deborah Montgomerie, Love in Time of War: Letter Writing in the Second World War (Auckland, New Zealand, Univ. of Auckland Press, 2005), 63.

To Have and to Hold: Marriage and Masculinity in World War II