How Du Maurier Combines World War II and The Environment

The environmental destruction after the foreign troops bombed most of England is an important topic that affected Du Maurier and her story of “The Birds.” Du Maurier showed how the consequences of World War II caused significant destruction to the environment, especially with Nat noticing how the natural surroundings looked different with the chaos brought by the birds: “The sky was hard and leaden, and the brown hills that had gleamed in the sun the day before looked dark and bare. The east wind, like a razor, stripped the trees, and the leaves, cracking and dry, shivered and scattered with the wind’s blast. Nat stubbed the Earth with his boot. It was frozen hard.” (Du Maurier 7). An exciting part of this description is that the Earth is “frozen hard.” Often, when the weather becomes this type of frigid cold, the environment will stop flourishing and go into a dormant state of death. It is important to note that this change from warm to freezing is not a natural change of seasons. Instead, Du Maurier shows how nature is falling apart due to the wrecking being committed by the birds, which is why Nat mentions, “Black winter descended into a single night.” (Du Maurier 7) Quick changes in the environment were propelled by the murderings of the birds and prove how Du Maurier wanted to show how countries being at war cause nature to lose its beautiful gift of life. Nature can no longer flourish due to the conflict of the birds, or in the case of Du Maurier, the destruction of nature due to the deadly weapons (such as air raids and bombings) that are destroying the Earth.

Du Maruier lived in Britain during the second world war, where most air raids would fill up the dark sky in the night hours. Experiencing the environmental destruction from these bombings deeply affected Du Maurier in a personal way, and would have a great impact on the types of literature she would create. In the article, “The Case for a Reinterpretation of Daphne Du Maurier's "The Birds” by Xavier Lachazette, he focuses on the environmental themes that are present within the story. From Lachazette’s perspective, he takes the idea of a “black winter” to symbolize the fear and panic that was spreading after the drop of the Hiroshima bomb in 1945. He says, “If one considers that Britain had launched its nuclear program during the Second World War and subsequently detonated its first bomb off the north-western coast of Australia on 3 October 1952, thus becoming the third country to wield the most dangerous of human weapons at the very moment when Du Maurier's story was appearing on its own in Good Housekeeping.” (Lachazette 28) The fact that “The Birds” was being published in magazines around the same time as Britain's nuclear program, helps to explain why Du Maurier kept on mentioning a “black winter” that was happening within the story. Historical analysis by Lachazette shows that this winter was filled with smoke from fighter jets’ airplanes and was a symbol of the clouds of darkness and death that descend from nuclear warfare. By focusing on the environmental damages that arise from war, she allows nature to gain agency over humans, taking out their anger over the fact that their home is now destroyed. Lachazette believes that nature’s anger is displayed in the fact that the birds no longer care for humans and, instead, turn into killing machines that feel no emotions towards their ruthless killings of people. He says, “It is as if after countless generations of birds had passed on to their descendants an unadulterated hatred for humankind, millions of them were finally called upon to visit nature's ever-renewed wrath on its ancient foe. This is Du Maurier's intended meaning when she chooses to close her story on Nat's wondering about "the piercing eyes, now giving them this instinct to destroy mankind with all the deft precision of machines.” (Lachazette 9) The fact that the birds go from having memories to now murdering with the “precision of machines” is Du Maurier showing how nature’s once compassionate affection is now turned angry due to their homes being ruined in the aftermath of war.