Vintagejazz wrote:
cestina wrote:
I really don't get this idea that Joey was in some way incompetent or anything but resourceful. Her youthful escapades surely showed that; character does not change substantially as one grows up.
If one assumes that the timeline remains much the same, the only difference being that she didn't marry, then she had the experience of fleeing twice before the Nazis, and also a trip to India, no small thing in those days, under her belt, by the time she was in her mid-twenties.
I think she could have held down any job she chose to try, and I see her as an excellent behind-the-lines spy in occupied France. Who knows where she might have gone from there?
Would she have had the emotional stamina for that? She had quite a bad mental collapse after the harrowing flight from Austria and seemed to be much more emotionally fragile than Bill or Robin.
You really would need nerves of steel to have been a spy in Nazi occupied France. I just couldn't see Joey being up to that. That's not a criticism. Most people wouldn't be able to undertake a role like that.
It's interesting, though - in a crisis, when needed, Jo is resourecful and resilient - rescuing Veta, going after Maureen, rescuing the Robin from the cave, even following Grizel up the Tiernjoch. Maybe not always the wisest decisions to go in the first place, but she had a plan, she put it into action, she saved the day etc. She might collapse later, when she's reached safety, when there is someone there to look after her, but when she needs to, when she has to, when other people are relying on her, I think she generally pulls through. So I could totally see her as a spy.