The Fly

CHRACTER:
Mr.Woodifield- old man who had a stroke not long ago and only allowed to leave his house in Tuesdays. He lives with his wife and daughters.
The Boss- he lost his son to WW I.
The Fly- this distracts the boss, and the boss kills the fly slowly.

Q. Although the story “The Fly” never overtly mentions World War I, make a list of details which indicate that the story is related to WW I and takes place shortly thereafter.

1.  Mr.Woodifield talked about his daughter, Gertrude, being gone to someone's grave and told the boss that she happened to across The boss's son's grave. The boss's son died in WW I. 
2. The boss remembers that he have never gotten to cry out loud about his son's death. so then he tries to cry, but he can't.
3. When the fly was bothering the boss, he completely forgets about trying to be sad about his son. the boss drops ink on the fly. the first drop was okay for the fly. but when it came to fourth drop of ink, the fly died (the war lasted four years).
4. I could say that  the fly could be representing the soldiers and the boss could be representing the head of the army who pushes soldiers to keep kill the enemies, even the priest (power vs. powerlessness). the boss was torturing the fly just like the captain of army tells the soldiers to kill everyone, good, or bad, kill them all. the fly struggles to get up and dry the wings but then it couldn't take anymore then the fourth drop. at the end of the war, after four years, the soldiers were mostly died in the battle and the alive soldiers weren't mentally alive (there is limit or level to take suffer).
5. 6years after the boss's son's death, he couldn't remember or even to think of his son's face. Time has passed and things like that are not sad or depressing anymore (Theme-Time is a great healer/should we not forget even the time passes by?).
6. the author also lost her brother to the war. I think that she is trying to remind people not to forget the heroes of our country, time should not be the reason to forget how war hurt all of us.