Study Guide

The Wanting Seed Part 5, Chapter 3

By Anthony Burgess

Part 5, Chapter 3

Tristram and his company are going to be embarking on a boat soon, but they don't know where they're going.
Tristram finds an ally in a man called Sergeant Lightbody, who is just as suspicious about the "war" as Tristram.
Tristram and Sergeant Lightbody discuss the purposes of war while Tristram addresses a letter to Beatrice-Joanna. Sergeant Lightbody is convinced that this war has been invented so that those in power—politicians and rich capitalists—can make a lot of money off it.
Sergeant Lightbody tells Tristram that he has a sister in the women's Auxiliaries, and that the women soldiers are being trained for combat just as the men are.
Tristram begins to suspect that history is not as cyclical as he once thought.