Question

The authors of "The Strange-Looking Man" and the Field Hospital and Flying column wrote about similar subject matter, but one wrote a short story while the other wrote about her own life experiences. How did the two authors' perspectives on wartime differ?

Only Fanny Kemble Johnson was a direct witness to a foreign invasion during World War I.

As a British citizen, Violetta Thurstan knew what it was like for her country to be occupied by foreign soldiers.

As an American citizen, Fanny Kemble Johnson was closer to the action during World War I.

Only Violetta Thurstan was a direct witness to a foreign invasion during World War I.

Answer 1

They differed in standpoint and immediacy. Violetta Thurstan was a British nurse and memoirist who wrote from direct, first‑hand experience of wartime nursing and the German invasions/occupations she witnessed; her Field Hospital and Flying Column is a reportage/memoir. Fanny Kemble Johnson wrote a short story, a fictional treatment of wartime themes, and was not a direct eyewitness to a foreign invasion.

Evaluating the four sentences you gave:
- "Only Fanny Kemble Johnson was a direct witness to a foreign invasion during World War I." — False.
- "As a British citizen, Violetta Thurstan knew what it was like for her country to be occupied by foreign soldiers." — True (Thurstan’s accounts come from serving in invaded/occupied areas).
- "As an American citizen, Fanny Kemble Johnson was closer to the action during World War I." — False (as an American fiction writer she was not a front‑line eyewitness; she was more removed).
- "Only Violetta Thurstan was a direct witness to a foreign invasion during World War I." — True.