Boasting at the Breakfast Table

This blog will pick up where the last left off in Chapter IX, “The Chip on the Shoulder.” Let’s start with the game as played by American schoolboys.

This next passage is one I find completely delightful. I share it in casual conversation. After spending sometime on the playground, she moves to the breakfast table.

I strongly recommend reading this in a British accent:

“At the English breakfast table, the father performs, hems and haws over his paper, expresses his opinion of the Prime Minister and the Irish question and other people’s letters to the Times, and the children listen, quietly. “

(Berghahn Books 2000)

I can’t speak for modern Brits or all Americans, but I think that is a solid description of how Americans relate to small ones now. If you are anything like me, you read “…apparently sympathetically, but also probably secretly amused…” (2000) and thought, “Isn’t that how you are supposed to interact with kids?”

I absolutely adore the characterization of the American child’s attempt to impress their parents as a “whistling in the dark” (2000). I think most American kids, especially very young ones and young adult ones, would completely relate to trying to “…live up to an unknown demand upon [their] unknown strength” (2000). This is a thread that weaves through And Keep Your Powder Dry—Americans are always bracing for the unknown and unimagined. We are always moving on, always hopeful of moving up.

But, we are never quite sure of where we are headed.

Now, remember, Mead is clearly, unapologetically trying to rally Americans to win the second world war and the peace. Even so, her description of Americans over-confidence in our side doesn’t feel overblown today. Even in our very cynical times, it’s safe to say that the boasting is a very present and trademark characteristic of our national pride. We need to believe that we’ve got a chance, even if it means we fake it until we make it.

And, I’m going to just pull this out, because I think it was a remarkable thing for a woman to say of a General in 1942. It’s the sort of thing that makes me feel good, and like we can go on…

“What exactly had MacArthur done at that moment—merely reached Australia.”

(Berghahn Books 2000)