Throughout Margot Livesey’s The Flight of Gemma Hardy, the narrator consistently points to the changes taking place throughout Scotland and surrounding areas—from post-WWII attitudes to changing fashions to newly-built suspension bridges and more. Some of the most notable events are mentioned by Gemma Hardy as she recalls her teacher’s enthusiasm for space travel. Miss Seftain shares a poem about Laika, has her students write letters to Strelka and Belka, and toasts the night sky with the success of Yuri Gagarin’s orbit in space (127). These events stem from the Soviet Union’s efforts to advance in the Space Race initially started in the late-1950s with the United States, their Cold War rival.

Though WWII ended in 1945, the spirit of expansionism was on the rise not long after and continued in other widely-covered competitions and wars like the Cold War and associated Space Race; Space exploration became another focus for both nations in their attempts to successfully prove their dominance and superiority, both economic and technological, over the another (“The Space Race”). Livesey’s inclusion of the Soviet space dogs not only provides readers with a concrete sense of time but also an idea of the societal development taking place in the world—media reached wider audiences, countries gained more power, and technology advanced at an ever-increasing pace. Although the United States made progress in their space travel efforts, it seemed that the Soviets were consistently ahead in the first few years. While Laika was sent into orbit on the Sputnik 2 space capsule in 1957, Strelka and Belka made history only three years later on August 19, 1960 as they successfully traveled space and returned to Earth alive after 17 orbits; Less than a year later in 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the planet (Hollingham). With widespread coverage of the race already established, the Soviet space dogs gained international fame and were plastered on newspapers, stamps, and postcards, thus explaining Miss Seftain’s excitement over in Scotland (Hollingham).

Livesey’s incorporation of these monumental moments in history allow readers to contextualize and imagine the time period The Flight of Gemma Hardy’s narrator grows up in. From the moment of her birth, Gemma’s life is defined by the changing landscapes surrounding her. War, the death of her parents and uncle, fashion, and infrastructure are just a few consistently referenced throughout. Earlier in the novel, “the great tide of changes sweeping postwar Britain” is mentioned, referencing the end of World War II, and shortly after the mention of the space dogs, Gemma reflects on the changing nature of Claypoole (66, 129). With the late 1950s and early 1960s serving as a time of rapid transformations and technological advancements, Miss Seftain’s fascination with the Space Race sheds light on the ever-shifting nature of society before, during, and after times of war and empire-building not only where Gemma is located in Scotland but worldwide as well. It also highlights just how interconnected the world was in comparison to the 1800s, the time period of Jane Eyre, thanks to the technology developed and spread since.

Works Cited

Hollingham, Richard. “The Stray Dogs that Led the Space Race.” BBC, 1 Nov. 2017, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20171027-the-stray-dogs-that-paved-the-way-to-the-stars. Accessed 11 Feb. 2022.

Livesey, Margot. The Flight of Gemma Hardy. HarperCollins, 2012.

Neozoon. 2009. Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Posta_Romana_-_1959_-_Laika_120_B.jpg. Accessed 13 Feb. 2022.

“The Space Race.” History, 22 Feb. 2020, https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/space-race. Accessed 11 Feb. 2022.