No Woman Born: History and Allusion

From 1941 to 1945, thousands of troops fought in various countries across the globe in the Second World War. No Woman Born was published in 1944, just one year before this widespread and gruesome combat concluded with the detonation of two nuclear bombs. Due to the volatile atmosphere that permeated the nations involved in the War, it is reasonable and very likely that the currents of warfare and its effects wove themselves through the plots of fictional works across the globe. These currents accumulate in C.L. Moore’s No Woman Born.

“She looked, indeed, very much like a creature in armor, with her delicately plated limbs and her featureless head like a helmet with a visor of glass, and her robe of chainmail.”

Deirdre, an actress whose life was nearly extinguished by a horrific fire, finds a new home for her brain in a body of golden metal that is markedly similar to a suit of armor.  Describing Deirdre with terms such as “helmet” and “chainmail” was by no means an accident; the author intentionally gave Deirdre qualities that conjure visions of combat and war. The robot-woman, in her knightly attire, emulates the images of soldiers that dominated newspapers and daily flooded television screens and cinemas of the 1940’s. In describing the way that her new body operates, Deirdre even compares herself to some of the same machines used in WWII.

“Ships and guns and planes are ‘she’ to the men who operate them and depend on them for their lives……Well, after a while I began to accept that this new body of mine could behave at least as responsively as a ship or a plane.”

By using this simile, Deirdre underscores the correlation between her own freshly crafted body and the crafts of war, and as this connection is drawn in sharp relief by the author, the defining aspects of humanity are examined. Maltzer, the genius behind Deirdre’s new body, constantly relays his fear that Deirdre is losing her grasp on humanity.

“And she’s lost three of her five senses…She isn’t a human being anymore, and I think what humanity is left in her will drain out little by little and never be replaced….I wish I’d let her die.”

While Deirdre’s “drainage” of humanity is the result of the lack of certain physical senses, it could perhaps correlate to the lack of propriety of most civilizations in times of war. During WWII, atrocious acts were committed but deemed suitable by transgressors for protecting countries and causes. However, the humanity of said acts was often pondered by critics, and the justification of certain events was called to question, just as Maltzer doubts that saving Deirdre’s life is worth the loss of her humanity. The text therefore brings the rectitude of the current events of the time to attention, and compels the reader to weigh the ends and the means of not only Maltzer’s actions, but the actions of various governments in WWII.

Finally, another striking feature of WWII that is highlighted in No Woman Born is the briefly but drastically changing role of women in American society. During WWII, females shed their roles as housewives and homemakers, and took up the jobs that had been vacated by men fighting in the War. Factories, sports teams, and other occupations previously considered strictly masculine found females among their ranks, females who were no longer considered the frail, dainty fixtures that smiled happily while cleaning house. Deirdre also goes through this journey, as she shows Maltzer that she is not the delicate mind that he and Harris take her for, but rather a being with super-human powers.  She can achieve feats that no other women or men before her were able to succeed in, just as the women of the forties filled roles that men previously thought women were incapable of performing.

           

         “‘Do you still think of me as delicate?’ she demanded ...‘I could tear my way through these walls, I think. I’ve found no limit yet to the strength I can put forth if I try’…‘I’m not subhuman.’ She laughed dryly. ‘I suppose,’ she said, ‘that I’m—superhuman.’”