A Pacifist's Allegory: Margaret McNamara's In Safety (1923)

Abstract

McNamara, like many pacifist writers, believed that a peaceful world could only be realized by exposing the underlying social causes of violence and conflict. In her plays in general, she does not only demonstrate the methods by which tension can be alleviated but also shows the actions leading to escalating conflicts. Thus, her plays provide conceptual representations of her ideology and thereby open the pathway for the message to apply to the varied experiences of her audience. She aspires to show that her characters’ ability to triumph over seemingly irreconcilable differences could serve as an indicator that the same good results could be achieved in larger scale of political conflicts if they were handled in a similar fashion. Tracing the historical thread of pacifist ideology will assist in illuminating McNamara's avowed design. The paper intends to do so through the analysis of In Safety (1923) which is set in colonial America and addresses pacifist issues very directly. In this play, the Quakers’ peace-loving manner of responding to an aggressor’s siege in the New World is contrasted with the defensive posture that another group of colonists takes toward the Native American population.