Jean Rivard - University of British Columbia

several of these arguments for non-violence also surface in Aleta Dey. As the
war years grind on, Aleta becomes increasingly disturbed by the reactions of
her fellow countrywomen/men to war. She identifies their wartime ideologies
as unimaginative, selfish, and bloodthirsty; she is horrified by their open
declarations of hatred for the German people, appalled that they prefer to
conscript men over wealth, angered that they fail to recognize the prevalence
of both propaganda and war profiteering, and discouraged that pre-war suffragists
and pacifists have suddenly turned litigious (207-13). It is not Aleta's
abhorrence of these vengeful positions, however, which brings her the courage
to voice her views, but the government's suppression of her right to speak
against them which catapults her into "action." As she says, "I might have
muddled along to the end had not the government begun to forbid us to
discuss the war at all, except favourably" (216). Her telephone tapped, warned
by the government censor not to oppose conscription, Aleta finds her
"courage." Defiant, she takes to the streets, distributing pamphlets demanding
that freedom of speech and of the press be preserved (217). This act of
resistance challenges the dominant culture, and Aleta is thrown into jail.
While incarcerated, she continues to wrestle with her cowardice. Although
she cannot be certain that her pacifist views are infallible, she comes to the
decision that she must "serve" humanity in the only way she knows; she
must denounce violence publicly, and speak her pacifist opinions forthrightly
(222). Uppermost is her belief that it is wrong to silence any voices.
At the end of the novel, Aleta foregoes meeting her beloved McNair, a soldier
returning from combat, in order to make a public address against the
war. Knowing she runs the risk of being jailed again, she willingly takes it,
for "the whole point of the meeting is that it is to be addressed by one who
has been in jail and who refuses to be silenced" (227). Her "fearless" deed
proves her undoing, however, for her behaviour poses serious threats to the
wielders of oppressive power. While exercising her freedom to speak, a soldier
who is going overseas to fight for freedom (and to protect women),
knocks Aleta off the public podium, and the blow eventually kills her.
Hundreds of people with pacifist leanings, too "cowardly" to declare themselves
openly, throng to Aleta's funeral. Here, Beynon uses her text didactically
to address those who did not go along with the government's wartime
injunctions, but who either lacked the courage to speak their peace, or on
other grounds were reluctant to voice their objections. Joan Byles sets out
one of the reasons many women had for remaining silent:
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