Society of Friends

The Society of Friends is represented in the novel through Don Stevens’s grey-uniformed service and his insistence that pacifism is compatible with patriotism. Its presence brings antiwar conviction into direct contact with military rank, social judgment, and the exuberant celebrations at the Armistice; the scenes offer glimpses of its outlook without describing the organization’s formal structure or work in detail.

Representation Through Don Stevens

When Don returns to Paris on leave, Eveline sees him in the grey uniform of the outfit associated with the Society of Friends. He is excited by the Bolsheviks’ success in Russia and predicts that soldiers’ mutinies will spread, describing armies as mutinous and revolt among German soldiers as a possible beginning of world revolution. His political hope reaches beyond an end to fighting: he argues that the war might have been almost worthwhile if it produced a new socialist civilization. The novel thus presents the Society of Friends in the setting of a personal and political commitment to pacifism, while Don’s revolutionary expectations belong specifically to him rather than being established as an official position of the organization.

Don’s uniform does not spare him from suspicion or mockery. After he encounters Eveline with J.W. Moorehouse and a young soldier, he denounces what he calls a Cross Red Major. Eveline answers by calling him a fake Quaker, making their disagreement a pointed exchange about the credibility of his own pacifism. The episode shows that the Society of Friends’ association with conscientious opposition to war can become a personal test: Don is not only judged by military people, but challenged by someone who knows him closely.

Pacifism Against Military and Patriotic Convention

At a dinner attended by Colonel Appleton and Brigadier General Byng, Don’s presence turns a social gathering into an argument over patriotism. Byng considers Quakers slackers; Don counters that a pacifist can be a better patriot than a staff officer in a comfortable post, and calls patriotism a crime against humanity. His intervention makes the Society of Friends’ pacifist identity legible to the military guests as dissent, not merely as a private refusal to fight. The argument nearly makes the dinner disagreeable before Appleton breaks through his chair and the guests’ attention shifts to a joke.

The scene also sets Don’s convictions against the conventions governing the gathering. Eveline’s invitation has already made the company uneasy, and Eleanor later quarrels with her over Don. His challenge therefore carries consequences beyond the words themselves: pacifism unsettles the rank-conscious social world of officers and correspondents and strains Eveline’s relationships within it. The episode depicts resistance to war as a position that can isolate its advocate even in a room full of acquaintances.

The Armistice and a Public Cry

During the Armistice celebrations, Don is found behind a small zinc bar, mixing cocktails for a crowd of drunken Canadian and Anzac officers. Paul Johnson says Don has had more than he should and cannot be got out of the café; when they lead him away, there seems to be nobody to pay for the drinks. Don removes his grey cap and cries, “Vive les quakers . . . à bas la guerre,” drawing cheers from the crowd. The slogan brings the Society of Friends’ name into the street celebration, where the end of the fighting becomes an occasion to denounce war as well as to rejoice.

The celebration does not turn Don into a composed spokesman. He is noisy and drunk, kisses Eveline as they move through the crowds, and runs after a group of Alsatian girls when she suggests crossing the river. Eveline dislikes his assumption that she is his girl, and Paul apologetically explains Don’s excitement. The episode preserves a tension central to the novel’s portrayal of the Society of Friends: a clear pacifist message emerges amid behavior that is disorderly and personally uncomfortable. The organization’s name becomes a brief public rallying cry, but the scene leaves its expression inseparable from Don’s individual excesses and the unsettled mood of the celebration.