Question

Which parts of this excerpt from "Editha" by William Dean Howells denote the meaninglessness of war? "No, girls don't; women don't, when they give their men up to their country. They think they'll come marching back, somehow, just as gay as they went, or if it's an empty sleeve, or even an empty pantaloon, it's all the more glory, and they're so much the prouder of them, poor things!" The tears began to run down Editha's face; she had not wept till then; but it was now such a relief to be understood that the tears came "No, you didn't expect him to get killed," Mrs. Gearson repeated, in a voice which was startlingly like George's again. "You just expected him to kill someone else, some of those foreigners, that weren't there because they had any say about it, but because they had to be there, poor wretches-conscripts, or whatever they call 'em. You thought it would be all right for my George, your George, to kill the sons of those miserable mothers and the husbands of those girls that you would never see the faces of." The woman lifted her powerful voice in a psalm-like note. "I thank my God he didn't live to do it! I thank my God they killed him first, and that he ain't livin' with their blood on his hands!" She dropped her eyes which she had raised with her voice, and glared at Editha.

Answer 1

In my opinion, these parts denote the meaninglessness of war:

"They think they'll come marching back, somehow, just as gay as they went, or if it's an empty sleeve, or even an empty pantaloon, it's all the more glory, and they're so much the prouder of them, poor things!" This part shows that soldiers, as well as the women they left behind, have utterly wrong expectations about war. It's not an opportunity for glory and pride. It is a massacre.

"You just expected him to kill someone else, some of those foreigners, that weren't there because they had any say about it, but because they had to be there, poor wretches-conscripts, or whatever they call 'em." This part denotes that there are no winners or losers in war. There are just those who manage to survive by killing others, and those who lose by letting others kill them. Both sides are tricked into entering the war.