Life in November 1939’s Great Britain was jarringly different from the rest of that year. World War II had only erupted two months beforehand, and most civilians’ lifestyles were just starting to be affected by it. One of the most drastic changes was the introduction of food rationing. Though only meat and butter were rationed at first, it affected enough Brits for the Mass Observation Archive to issue questionnaires, or directives, that tracked how people nationwide felt about it and nearly every other subject within their livelihoods. This particular directive gathered the responses of people residing in the Kilburn and East End regions of the city. Each section of the multifaceted package itself was typed or written on typewriter paper, …show more content…
The tally-driven portion was designed to be simple and open-ended enough for everyone to comprehend. A total of 80 people responded to this section; 10 males and 10 females of various age responded to each (“NOVEMBER 1929 RATIONING QUESTIONNAIRE; NOVEMBER 1939 RATIONING QUESTIONNAIRE OVERVIEW”). All data was collected by MO employees going door to door. The tallies were marked in pencil on a hand-drawn flimsy graph, with later edits made in pen. People’s opinions tended to align with others’ within their respective demographics. Other information was collected both through eleven indirectly overheard conversations on the streets and through twelve directly noted conversations between a doctor and his patients. People at large had no major gripes about the process of rationing; the meats and butter they were lacking at the time were proven easily replaced by other livestock and margarine respectively. However, most of the doctor’s interviewees (“RATIONING CONVERSATION RECORDED IN DOCTOR’S OFFICES”) were opposed to having to use margarine and instead used other substitutes. Compromises were always able to be made and, to this time, no one truly suffered to any depth from