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Identify places where the reader gets a sense of Woolf’s personal experiences and explain
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how they help to support the points she is making about war and peace.
3. Several times Woolf uses a hornet as an analogy to war (paras. 1 and 3). Explain the analogy
and why she might have used it.
4. Woolf personifies the “current” in paragraph 4. What does the current represent and what is
accomplished through her use of personification?
5. Reread the beginning of paragraph 8, in which Woolf uses figurative language to describe the
drone of the planes. What does she compare the sound to, and what is the effect of this
particular simile?
Changing the World
6. In paragraph 3 Woolf writes, “But to make ideas effective, we must be able to fire them off.”
Explain the analogy to weapons, and explain how this relates to her larger ideas about the role
and power of women.
7. Woolf regularly draws comparisons between “up there” (airmen) and “down here” (women).
What are the differences, and how are men and women “both prisoners” in war (par. 4)?
8. What is the effect of including the words from the young Englishman who fought in the
previous world war who described his desire to earn “undying honour and glory” (par. 6)?
9. How does Woolf use the section on reducing childbearing to help make her argument about
subconscious Hitlerism (par. 7)? Is she, in fact, suggesting that childbearing is restricted to a
class of “specially selected women”?
10. Reread paragraph 8 in which Woolf describes the moment when a bomb may fall directly on
her room. Note the contrast between the moment when all thoughts stop and when the
thoughts begin again. What language choices does she use to illustrate that contrast?
11. Review the structure of her essay, tracing the start of the raid, the middle, and the ending.
What is the effect of framing her essay within the context of a single night’s air raid?

Topics for Composing

1. Analysis. Overall, what is the main point that Woolf makes about how to create peace in the
world? What role do women play in the process she imagines?
2. Argument. Woolf says “All the idea makers who are in a position to make ideas effective are
men” in 1940. Take a position and write an argument on whether this statement is true or not
true today. You can refer to your own experience or conduct research to support your response.
3. Connection. Identify a characterization of gender in the essay that you either strongly agree
or disagree with, and explain how your personal experiences relate to your conclusion.
4. Speaking and Listening. Working with a partner, choose a paragraph from this essay that
struck you because of the language, ideas, or other elements. Read it aloud to each other
twice, taking turns so each person gets to read once and listen once. What particular words
stood out to you when you read it aloud? How was your understanding of the essay different
after reading it aloud, rather than reading it silently to yourself?
5. Research. In 1940 when Woolf was writing this essay, women were not allowed to serve in
combat positions. Conduct research to find out what roles women played in World War II, and
compare and contrast your findings with the roles that women can play today. How much has
changed, and how much has remained the same?
6. Multimodal. Use some combination of drawing, painting, construction, or found images to
recreate the air raid and the civilians below as depicted in this essay. Be sure that your piece
captures not only the elements of war, but also the ideas of gender and possibilities for peace
that Woolf presents.

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