War
Though the plot of the novel is not developed around the war, but the events described are the result of its horrid existence. The World War I was extremely cruel and the soldiers have experienced dreadful things that they did not want even to talk about them. Chris Baldry was a soldier during this war, he was at the front so saw many terrible things. And here he returns home, but he loses his memory – 15 years of his life are erased from his head. The war is the reason of such a mental trauma for Chris.
Love
Love is an eternal source of power in which loved and loving are drawing forces to go on. For Chris his last memory was of his first and true love – Margaret. He returns from the front and remembers nothing but his Margaret, who was the only existing person for him. His love makes him happy, and his wife Kitty sees this and is extremely jealous. But it is not Chris’s love but Margaret’s that plays an important role in the events. She had a great opportunity to have her beloved back, as he stills loved her and he was rich and well-to-do while she was poor and had with her husband to make two ends meet. But she never uses this opportunity, as her love is poor, clear and of the greatest virtue. It is she who reminds Chris of his lost son and with this information he reminds all fifteen years.
Optimism
Few first chapters are developed around the very thought of Chris’s return – the return of the soldier. The time of the novel’s publication was 1918 year – the year of the end of the First World War. Many wives, mothers, sisters were waiting for their beloved to come back home; surely not everyone returned but they never stopped hoping. The novel gives a picture of the soldier returning, but also indicates that it is not the very return to pay attention to, since the soldier’s mental state and mental health matters more.
