The National narrative of the post-Ottoman states of Lebanon and Syria has portrayed the years of World War I as a period of extreme hardship intentionally inflicted on the civilian population by a Turkish dominated Ottoman state apparatus. This narrative written from the perspective of the political and literary elites of Lebanon and Syria, remains silent on the real life experiences of the subaltern elements within the population, especially when these experiences do not serve the general goals of this narrative. Using the memoirs of Badi'a Masabni, a Syro-Lebanese entertainer and oriental dancer, which presents an alternative style of life during the war years hitherto missing from the narrative, this paper will show that the elitist national narrative is far from being inclusive of all the sections of the civilian population, and that the voices and life-experiences of subaltern groups, if included, will present a more nuanced and complex picture of the reality of life during the war years.