Growing Up: Love and War

Gender, in the simplest form, deals with characteristics in which society has labeled "masculine" and "feminine." Sometimes interchanged with sex, gender, though, remains a much more complicated socially and culturally. Unlike the other exhibits, this exhibit encourages the readers to consider the implications of adulthood, love, and war in the context of gender and society.

Thus, as both readers and historians of this project, your task will be interpreting these materials, placing them in context, and determining what these letters tell us that other materials have not. As you go through the exhibit ask yourself the following questions:

How do Emmett's and Jane's relationships change through out the letters?

Does war act as a social catalyst in the context of these letters? If so, how?

What impact does love and adulthood have on gender?

How do these letters complicate your understanding of World War II?

What purpose do these letters serve?