The Good War: Peggy Terry + E.B. "Sledgehammer" Sledge

Peggy Terry, originating from Kentucky, has lived in Chicago for the past twenty years. Peggy offers a much different perspective on the war than I had ever heard of before. Mostly, we had studied and read the accounts of people who were heavily involved and familiar with the war. These people were either soldiers or families of soldiers who were serving over seas, all of whom knew the details of the war. These people had radios, watched newsreels, and knew as much about the war as anyone. Peggy, on the other hand, had no radio, and all she knew about the war was that there was one. She sums up her attitude pretty well when she says, "When you are involved in stayin' alive, you don't think about big things like a war" (190). Peggy's only real concerns pertained to her own security and monetary situation. Because of this, she focused solely on the necessities; the war was never an issue. Not even when she was working, assembling shells that would be used to kill people, was she aware of her country's present situation. When she would be exposed to chemicals that would cause her hair to turn orange, her safety wasn't a concern, rather she was only worried of what others would think of her dyed hair. Later on, when she moved to Paducah, Kentucky, her eyes were opened to a whole new world. She was introduced to racism and the propaganda that everyone had been experiencing for quite some time. She says, "I believe the war was the beginning of my seeing things. You just can't stay uninvolved and not knowing when such a momentous thing is happening. It's just little things that start happening and you put one piece with another. Suddenly, a puzzle begins to take shape" (193). One can tell the drastic effects that the war had on people by Peggy's account. Peggy went from a woman who didn't even know who was in the war to a woman whose husband was now having nightmares of people dying on the battlefield. Peggy notes how the war also changed the overall attitudes of the government and its citizens. Usually, she notes, killing is frowned upon and those who commit it are punished. During times of war, however, those who commit killing are awarded with medals and ribbons.
Eugene B. Sledge was one of those who was awarded for his actions as a marine during the war. However, Sledge notes, he really doesn't feel like the hero he is perceived as. He notes how Hollywood really glorifies men of war but that deep inside, he was just a kid who was fighting so that he could go home and return back to his normal life. He didn't like violence at all, and wasn't interested in seeing how many people he could kill. He says, "I don't like violence, but there are times when you can't help it" (198). Sledge was in a situation where you couldn't take a humanitarian approach. He learned this lesson when he and a buddy attempted to help a wounded Japanese. After attempting to fetch medical help for him, the Japanese soldier reached for a grenade and tried to detonate it in order to kill himself and the two American soldiers who were trying to help him. From this, Sledge really learned how one's own morals and values have to change when placed in a war situation like this. He says how one has to develop a sense of insensitivity on the front line as it is the only way he can cope with the horrors around him. He recalls his friends, who were really just kids at heart, thrown into a situation far above their maturity level, eventually becoming sick, twisted men. "This was just a mild-mannered kid who was now a twentieth-century savage" (201). This account shows a completely different way in which the war affected Americans. Terry's story showed the effects on the people on the home front while Sledge's story well demonstrates the effects on the soldiers overseas. These Americans were tested in a cruel way, forced to make decisions regarding how to react during times of war. Terry was tested socially while Sledge was tested mentally. Sledge sums up the change very well when he says, "We had all become hardened. We were out there, human beings, the most highly developed form of life on earth, fighting each other like wild animals" (202). This fighting didn't only occur on the battlefront; it was occurring on the home front as well. Both stories help to show the ways in which Americans were tested during the war. Some passed the test, while others failed miserably.

The Good War: Introduction + Bob Rasmus

This introduction to the war (WWII) does not go as much into the facts of the war so much as it delves into the effects that the war had on our nation. The effects varied: some were on the citizens at home who had family members across seas; others were on the soldiers themselves who experienced much pain and destruction that they had never known; still others were on our government, whose members did not know quite how to react. Even more specific than that is the effect the war had on our president. Just coming off of post-WWI and his New Deal project, Roosevelt now had more on his mind than simply American jobs. In the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself, "Dr. New Deal was replaced by Dr. Win The War" (168). However, when I recall all of the other matter with which the President had to deal with, this statement seems largely untrue. If, in his own words, his new goal was winning the war, why was the anti-Japanese propaganda necessary? Why was the removal of thousands of Japanese-Americans from their communities necessary? I think that an Iowa farmer describes the effects of the war in a way that is easiest to understand: "The war--it does something to your country. It does something to the individual" (168). The war wasn't only about the battles overseas; it was about the battles on the home front as well.
Bob Rasmus was one of those who fought a battle both overseas and at home. He was only fourteen years old when Germany invaded Poland, and right away he knew he would be in the war. He says, "You saw those things in the movies, you saw the newsreels. But you were of an age when your country wasn't even in the war. It seemed unreal. All of a sudden, there you were right in the thick of it and people were dying and you were scared out of your wits that you'd have your head blown off" (177). And not only was he in the war, but he was a rifleman, putting him at prime risk to be killed on the battlefield. From Bob's account, one can learn that fighting in the war wasn't only a test of strategy and skill on the battlefield, but it was a mental battle that was fought by each and every soldier. Bob expresses this idea well when he says, "The reason you storm the beaches is not patriotism or bravery. It's that sense of not wanting to fail your buddies" (179). Bob experienced the true battle of an American, desperately wanting to help the people he cared about both on the home front and on the battlefront.

Hard Times: Jane and Tom Yoder + Peggy Terry and Mary Owsley

Reading the accounts of this mother and son made me realize how many of my posessions I take for granted. I am fortunate to be in a situation where I know that I will always be warm if I want to and will always have enough food to eat. Jane Yoder, having lived through the Great Depression, will most likely never again take anything for granted. At the time of the Depression, her family was barely able to afford anything, let alone stay warm. She was grateful just for a coat that would keep her warm through the harsh winter, boots that would keep her feet dry. Jane even recalls having such a strong desire for food that she would look forward to the day she was sick so that her mother would feed her oranges and bananas to allow her to recover. Jane has memories of overhearing her fellow classmates talk poorly of her family, calling them lazy, and Jane simply thought, "You don't know what it's like" (129). I feel that she was directly speaking to her readers that, like her classmates, don't know what it's like, and perhaps never will. So is the case with her son, Tom, who grows up in a world that is very different from the one his mother grew up in. He says how he's never gone to bed hungry, something that his mother must have experienced quite too often during the Great Depression. However, after listening to his mother's story, Tom begins to understand where his mother came from and starts to become grateful for what he has. He displays a great aspect of what it means to be an American: learning from the past, understanding what it means in the present, and planning accordingly for the future.
Peggy Terry along with her mother, Mary Owsley, lived and experienced poverty in a more extreme way than perhaps Jane Yoder did. Mary and her husband lived in Oklahoma for a decent part of their lives together, from 1929 to 1936. The Depression hit them, and it hit them hard. Mary recalls a family she knew in Oklahoma City that had to resort to living in a hole in a ground. I can barely believe living in a world where the people I knew would have to resort to living so desperately. And perhaps more sad than this is the suicides that came about as a result of a life so full of hardship. Mary describes the reasoning behind these suicides, saying, "...they couldn't see any hope for a better tomorrow" (139). This starkly contrasts with the ideas brought up earlier by the Yoders, a family that has relied, and continues to rely on hope for a better tomorrow. Another important topic brought up by the account of both Mary and Peggy is the idea of shame. Mary explains how people that were more well off than others felt ashamed because they were able to eat while their peers weren't. Peggy describes a different sort of shame, shame that came about from not being well off enough to procure one's own food. Peggy was able to use the ignorance of a child to combat shame, seeing the trip to the soup line as a game to play with friends as opposed to a declaration of poverty. However, as she grew older, she began to recognize the shamefulness that came about with her status as being poor. One situation where she must have felt this the most was when she received food from an African-American family, as she looked down on African-Americans and saw them as inferior. Peggy displayed qualities that really don't fit what it means to be an American. She looked down on others in order to make herself feel better about her situation, and that is not the way to succeed in life. Being an American is accepting yourself for who you are and not looking down on others and inferior, nor should you be looking up to others as superior. As it is written in the Declaration of Independence and is upheld as the framework of our country, "All men are created equal." They should be treated as such.

Hard Times: Arthur Robertson + Oscar Heline

It was impressive to read Robertson's many instances of success in his life, but what caught my attention was the nonchalance with which he mentioned his successes. For example, he says, "I recently sold it for $2 million. I bought it in 1933 for $33,000" (100). Robertson knows that his interviewer is aware of his wealth, so he makes sure not to center the conversation around that fact. Instead, Robertson talks of the lifestyle and the idiotic choices that were made by many that lead to the stock market's crash in 1929. He introduces such economic terms as "selling short" and "scavenging." Robertson reflects on all of the poor decisions people were making and how they're attitudes contributed to they're own downfall. He says, "Everybody in those days expected the sun to shine forever" (101). People were making purchases with money they didn't have and eventually this caught up with them. All of these people were trying to live the "American dream," however cheating and stealing was not the way to go about attaining it. One would think that we would have learned our lesson with this crash, however the same thing happened just a few years ago when we experienced yet another recession. The same poor decisions were made resulting in the same outcome.
Oscar Heline, on the other hand, introduced a much different tale. It says something about the community and the people who live there when in trying to find a single man, one has to go searching all around the town just to find someone who's heard of him. So was the case with Oscar Heline, a farmer living in a small rural community who reflects of his life in the pre-WWII and post-war life as a farmer. Heline seems like a good representative for his fellow farmers as he was very involved with the legislation of the time regarding farmers. Heline describes just how deep the depression hit the farmers. He recounts experiences of burning grain as it was cheaper than coal. This was the same grain on which they relied to make a living. It was as if they were burning their own money! It was because of this depressing introduction that when Heline begins to describe the alleviation of his suffering, the reader feels the same joy that he felt. Heline even brings himself to tears. He says, "New money was put int he farmers' hands. The Federal Government changed the whole marketing program from burning 10-cent corn to 45-cent corn. People could now see daylight and hope. It was a whole transformation of attitude. You can just imagine...(He weeps)" (123). Heline could really appreciate this transformation, even if it was just a little one. He was able to take advantage of his circumstances, and this display of optimism is an important quality of what it means to be an American. Being an American is having the ability to remain optimistic in the worst of times and to take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself to you. In this aspect, Heline can be seen as a role model for all Americans.