Compared to the last few years, I feel that my work ethic has improved, not just in this English class but in all aspects of my life. This semester, I put a great amount of effort into all of my work. If I had any confusion about any assignment, I came to my teacher with my questions and didn’t wait until the last minute. Every assignment I was given, I completed on time or before it was actually due. Organization has always been difficult but this year I have really tried to keep everything organized and stay on track. Since the CU Succeed class was on Monday nights, I always started my assignment for this English class on Tuesday whether it was the research portion or the writing part. I think I have shown that I am capable of being a much better student that I have been in the past. I know that part of this improvement is because of the knowledge that “this is my last chance,” but some of the change for the better is due to maturity.
Reading comprehension has always been a difficult thing for me and as this semester passed, it appeared to be easier. I do not like to read and rarely do for pleasure, but as I got more into my subject, it became less of a chore to do. Writing is also not my favorite activity but I really was interested in Pearl Harbor so it didn’t seem so bad. Some of the assignments were tough, like the poem. I hate poetry so that was a hard assignment for me to do. It helped that my teacher provided possible questions to ask in the blogs about the movie and web site review because I would have experienced a more difficult time with that type of writing. Reading the non-fiction book Day Of Infamy,
was tough, I did not enjoy it at all. However, reading the reference material on web-sites, articles and portions of other historical accounts of Pearl Harbor were easy and somewhat enjoyable. My reading skills have definitely improved from this semester’s experience. I am a slow reader and I used to dread having to read anything which made things worse for me. My biggest challenge is in writing as I do not have much confidence in what I put down on paper, but I think there are improvements there too.
What I will keep from my research this semester is that there are usually two sides to every story and sometimes, the truth is not what you have always been told. One piece of information that I found that has made an impression on me is that our government will basically lie or with hold the truth from us to get what they want. Unfortunately, that costs human lives at times. Pearl Harbor really has nothing to do with what my future plans are, but I am still interested in this subject and I know that I will continue to follow articles or public information on this. I do not feel any differently about Pearl Harbor, I have always believed the United States was not surprised by the Japanese attack and the more I read and researched, the stronger my belief became. Overall, I am very glad that I chose my topic, it kept me interested and there was enough information for me to write about it for an entire semester.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Book Review
Day Of Infamy
By Author Walter Lord
Day Of Infamy was written by the author Walter Lord who was famous for his historical books. Lord died in 2002 at 84 after first having a career as an advertising executive and then an author. Some of his most well known books are on the sinking of the Titanic, Pearl Harbor, the Alamo, and the War of 1812. Mr. Lord combined historical research and interviews with survivors or witnesses to the events he wrote about. Lord interviewed 577 witnesses to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and used the 40 volumes from the U.S. Congressional investigation as well as the documents from the War Records Depository. He was known to be meticulous in his research and was an “inspiration” to many authors of historical stories and biographies, according to David McCullough, author of the recent popular biography on John Adams in a New York Times story on Walter Lord’s death. Lord is definitely an author who is trustworthy and accurate, he had no biases when writing this account on the Pearl Harbor bombing and no person or group sponsored or endorsed Day Of Infamy. The critic from the Chicago Sunday Tribune stated, “A behind the scenes story that is utterly fascinating,” while author James Michener, critic for the New York Times said the book “stuns the reader with the weight of reality.” The Atlantic Monthly review states that, “the carefully planned hour by hour recording of the Pearl Harbor assault is as engrossing as the story of the sinking of the Titanic and more harrowing.”
Walter Lord’s purpose in writing Day Of Infamy was to preserve the events of that horrible day in the words of those who witnessed the attack and to show the shock, anger, and fear of those present. There had been many earlier books and articles written on the subject of Pearl Harbor, but none of them detailed the minute by minute actions of civilian witnesses, soldiers and their families like this book does. Mr. Lord was very successful at putting together everyone’s story on a timeline. As an example:
“At 7:02, Elliot sat down and began to fiddle with the controls…a large blip
came across the machine and he thought it was broken, but there was nothing
wrong, it was just a huge flight of planes.” “At 7:03, the destroyer Ward
picked up a sub on her sound apparatus.” At 7:45, Lieutenant Commander
H.P. McCrimmon was sitting with his feet on his desk” (Lord 45 & 57).
Day Of Infamy was written in a mixture of styles. It has mainly expository text with some narrative and dialogue mixed in. The structure of the book was set up with events in chronological order on the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the writing was very descriptive so the reader got a mental picture of what the author was describing. For example:
Thirteen year old James B. Mann Jr. stood with his father squinting at the planes that
circled high above their beach house on the northwest coast of Oahu. The Manns liked
to come to the house for a restful weekend, but this morning there was no rest at all.
First the planes set off their two pug dogs; then the barking woke the family up. Mrs.
Mann thought it might be that lieutenant Underwood from Wheeler Field – he was
always buzzing the beach- but Mr. Mann and Junior quickly discovered that it was a
much bigger show. More than 100 planes were orbiting about, gradually breaking
up into smaller groups of three, five and seven. Soon several fighters dropped down
low enough for junior to observe, “They changed the color of our planes” (Lord 49).
The structure of the book did not help in the comprehension of the story, however. This was a difficult account to follow. There were so many different characters and locations talked about that it was impossible to remember who the character was when they came up in the story again. Mr. Lord interviewed hundreds of witnesses for this account of that awful day and it appears he put every one of their part of the story in the book.
The author makes no conclusions and there are really no main points discussed, this is just an accurate eye-witness account of the events of December 7, 1941. Lord begins the book with a short few chapters on the Japanese process of planning for the attack and what they did to follow through. The book comes to a close with the accounts of wives and families of those stationed on Pearl Harbor who waited for news of their soldier husband or father. It also speaks of the many who volunteered their services at the hospital to help with the wounded and ends finally with President Roosevelt’s speech about the “day that will live in infamy”(Lord 209). This book is facts only, no opinions from the author.
Lord’s Day of Infamy is tied directly to my subject, which was the attack on Pearl Harbor and it certainly helped me become more knowledgeable of the events of that day. However, there was nothing about the book that I enjoyed. It was very difficult to read because as stated before, there were too many characters doing too many things. A person might be on page 42 and not appear again until page188 and I could not remember who he or she was or what they were doing originally. I would recommend this book for anyone who is writing a report about Pearl Harbor because there are some good quotes and statistics within it, but it is definitely not a book to read for fun.
By Author Walter Lord
Day Of Infamy was written by the author Walter Lord who was famous for his historical books. Lord died in 2002 at 84 after first having a career as an advertising executive and then an author. Some of his most well known books are on the sinking of the Titanic, Pearl Harbor, the Alamo, and the War of 1812. Mr. Lord combined historical research and interviews with survivors or witnesses to the events he wrote about. Lord interviewed 577 witnesses to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and used the 40 volumes from the U.S. Congressional investigation as well as the documents from the War Records Depository. He was known to be meticulous in his research and was an “inspiration” to many authors of historical stories and biographies, according to David McCullough, author of the recent popular biography on John Adams in a New York Times story on Walter Lord’s death. Lord is definitely an author who is trustworthy and accurate, he had no biases when writing this account on the Pearl Harbor bombing and no person or group sponsored or endorsed Day Of Infamy. The critic from the Chicago Sunday Tribune stated, “A behind the scenes story that is utterly fascinating,” while author James Michener, critic for the New York Times said the book “stuns the reader with the weight of reality.” The Atlantic Monthly review states that, “the carefully planned hour by hour recording of the Pearl Harbor assault is as engrossing as the story of the sinking of the Titanic and more harrowing.”
Walter Lord’s purpose in writing Day Of Infamy was to preserve the events of that horrible day in the words of those who witnessed the attack and to show the shock, anger, and fear of those present. There had been many earlier books and articles written on the subject of Pearl Harbor, but none of them detailed the minute by minute actions of civilian witnesses, soldiers and their families like this book does. Mr. Lord was very successful at putting together everyone’s story on a timeline. As an example:
“At 7:02, Elliot sat down and began to fiddle with the controls…a large blip
came across the machine and he thought it was broken, but there was nothing
wrong, it was just a huge flight of planes.” “At 7:03, the destroyer Ward
picked up a sub on her sound apparatus.” At 7:45, Lieutenant Commander
H.P. McCrimmon was sitting with his feet on his desk” (Lord 45 & 57).
Day Of Infamy was written in a mixture of styles. It has mainly expository text with some narrative and dialogue mixed in. The structure of the book was set up with events in chronological order on the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the writing was very descriptive so the reader got a mental picture of what the author was describing. For example:
Thirteen year old James B. Mann Jr. stood with his father squinting at the planes that
circled high above their beach house on the northwest coast of Oahu. The Manns liked
to come to the house for a restful weekend, but this morning there was no rest at all.
First the planes set off their two pug dogs; then the barking woke the family up. Mrs.
Mann thought it might be that lieutenant Underwood from Wheeler Field – he was
always buzzing the beach- but Mr. Mann and Junior quickly discovered that it was a
much bigger show. More than 100 planes were orbiting about, gradually breaking
up into smaller groups of three, five and seven. Soon several fighters dropped down
low enough for junior to observe, “They changed the color of our planes” (Lord 49).
The structure of the book did not help in the comprehension of the story, however. This was a difficult account to follow. There were so many different characters and locations talked about that it was impossible to remember who the character was when they came up in the story again. Mr. Lord interviewed hundreds of witnesses for this account of that awful day and it appears he put every one of their part of the story in the book.
The author makes no conclusions and there are really no main points discussed, this is just an accurate eye-witness account of the events of December 7, 1941. Lord begins the book with a short few chapters on the Japanese process of planning for the attack and what they did to follow through. The book comes to a close with the accounts of wives and families of those stationed on Pearl Harbor who waited for news of their soldier husband or father. It also speaks of the many who volunteered their services at the hospital to help with the wounded and ends finally with President Roosevelt’s speech about the “day that will live in infamy”(Lord 209). This book is facts only, no opinions from the author.
Lord’s Day of Infamy is tied directly to my subject, which was the attack on Pearl Harbor and it certainly helped me become more knowledgeable of the events of that day. However, there was nothing about the book that I enjoyed. It was very difficult to read because as stated before, there were too many characters doing too many things. A person might be on page 42 and not appear again until page188 and I could not remember who he or she was or what they were doing originally. I would recommend this book for anyone who is writing a report about Pearl Harbor because there are some good quotes and statistics within it, but it is definitely not a book to read for fun.
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