1914 text response

The text 1914 written by Sophie Masson informs the readers of the events that had taken place during WW1. A couple of events that had been explored included what had triggered WW1, one is, the assassination of the Archduke and Duchess of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Other key events are explored when Louis and Thomas partake in the war, which provides first hand experience of everything that they experienced. Sophie had cleverly added key moments all through out the book and helped contributed to the texts continuation towards the end of the narrative. Having all those events placed through out the book had greatly influenced the amount of insight of WW1 that is shown.

Sophie Masson created realistic characters all through out her text, an example would be the protagonists, Louis and his older brother Thomas who witnessed the main trigger of WW1, the assassination of Archduke Franz and Duchess Sophie, leaders of the Austro-Hungarian empire and even managed to take a photo of the killer. "I found myself raising my camera and took shot after shot" (pg. 26). Louis and Thomas published a article about what had transpired, which included a picture that Louis had taken and a article Thomas had written which stated that "the Archduke was assassinated by a Serbian student" (pg. 30), after writing it they sent it of to Le Jour De Paris, the local magazine company in Paris to be published. During that time, Louis had sustained damage to his hearing due to shrapnel from the bomb "you have permanently lost part of your hearing in your left ear" (pg. 32). From those examples shown it is clear that Louis and Thomas are characters realistic enough to have witnessed the trigger of WW1.

Sophie Masson had explored other key events, an example of such is when Louis and Thomas had joined and contributed to the war, despite what there mother, Clare, had wished, "I am afraid for you" (pg 67) and provided the text with firsthand experiences. When Louis becomes a 'war correspondent' and completes an assignment call "the special operation" (pg. 101), sending his reports to Le Jour De Paris with another article of his own, which teaches the audience all about a key even in WW1 and how all of the taxes were raised in order to support transporting French troops "An order has been given. Men pile into taxis, four inside, one on the running board" (pg. 103). Louis had surprised himself when he found something to write an article about, aeroplanes and how they were being used for reconnaissance "I went outside to investigate and saw several reconnaissance planes flying over" (pg. 107).

Sophie Masson has cleverly incorporated events into the book that only revolve around the protagonist Louis, one event is where Marina runs away to go and join the hospital in Germany "Marina had vanished, taking her allowance for the month and just enough clothes to fit in a small bag" (pg. 69). When Louis had found out that his brother, Thomas, was in a hospital all the way in Calais, Louis had wanted to know if their parents had found out "'My parents...' 'They wont know yet. I only learned about it by chance'" (pg. 166). Another such event is when Hansel had gone and held a rifle to his head, when Louis realised who it was he tried to remind Hansel that he was his friend "'Hansel,' I cried, 'don't you know me? It's me. It's Louis'" (pg. 203).

Sophie Masson had shown how someone effected in turmoil could change so much all through out the text. One such example is when Louis is surprised by the fact that his friend, Hansel, is holding a rifle to him "'There is no place for friendship in the war', he said dully. 'And no way out for those like me'" (pg. 204). Turmoil can either greatly affect someone or barely affect someone, Louis's brother, Thomas, is a example of turmoil greatly effecting someone. when Louis went to visit Thomas, he found that Thomas had completely changed, and became unwilling to go back and stay with his parents "'They'll want to look after you.' 'No,' said Thomas. His voice still flat" (pg. 172).

Having realistic characters portrayed though the text makes you think that it would historically be accurate. Sophie has cleverly and clearly linked just about all of the events from the first year of WW1 to her text '1914' and linked her characters to these events. Masson had clearly done her research, because the event that triggered the war was put at the beginning, added in trench warfare in the middle of the book, then added the Christmas truce at the end of the book and filled the rest of the book with minor events that had happened.