Marjorie Polon

So, I decided to read more about Marjorie Polon from the essay Professor Fernandez wrote and had published. I am very interested in women in the Spanish Civil War, and I thought that this would be a great start. Interestingly enough, though Polon was only 14 years old at the time, she was corresponding with men much older, some possibly twice her age. One thing that bothered me was the fact that the men wrote to her so roughly and crudely, treating her as an object rather than a person. Also, there does not seem to be a sense of personal divide; for example, the soldiers seem to pry into her business, expecting her to be so open with them as they are with her. The article continues to describe the relationship between Marjorie and the men, each of whom wrote differently to her; some wrote love letters, some wrote to her as a friend, and others just asked her simply for cigarettes. it is just so astounding to me how a 14 year old girl could keep up this facade for so long, and how the men she wrote to never realized her real age.