For the last few days in social studies, I've been learning more about World War II, so I've naturally been thinking a lot about Molly, Emily and Nanea, the three World War II era dolls. Despite them coming from around the same time period, they've shown a light on three different ways that people lived during the war. I decided to write about that today!
Molly's movie's subtitle explains it all: An American Girl On The Home Front. Molly lives in the middle of the country, where things are mostly peaceful, the war is just something on the news and at school, and there's RATIONS AFTER RATIONS. But unlike other families, Molly's family is torn apart due to the war with her dad going overseas. But the war didn't dampen Molly's carefree spirit at all, unlike...
Nanea. Alas, poor Nanea. She just wanted to make a meal for her family to make up for the Thanksgiving disaster, but she ended up walking in on- the Pearl Harbor attack? That's right- Nanea actually SAW the bombings with her own two eyes. This made Nanea more passionate about helping the war effort, and she ended up working hard to make soldiers happy with her dancing, so it didn't wreck her entirely. It was harder on her friends Lily, who was a patriotic American but was accused of spying for the Japanese just because she was on Japanese descent and Donna, who was deemed 'non-essential' and had to go back to the American mainland. But this wasn't the worst WWII had to offer for our American Girl dolls...
Emily. I want to give Emily a hug still. Emily needs all the hugs. So basically, Emily was living it up in England until the Nazis came and started bombing the place. In the books, she witnesses houses being destroyed and people taking shelter in subways, and in the movie, her own apartment gets bombed and her mom dies. To escape all this, Emily moves to America, staying with Molly in the movie and with her Aunt Primrose in the books (but she does stay with Molly for a few weeks during Happy Birthday, Molly).
So, yeah. World War II was a tough time for both these dolls and real people, and they sure are no Barbies having to go through this. So, if you have any of these three dolls, give them a hug today. I'm surely giving my Molly and Emily hugs today (and Nanea will be getting a hug once I come back to my mom's house)!