Analysis of "Pamplona in July" (SUMMER READING)

Title: Pamplona in July

Author: Ernest Hemingway

            I had read The Old Man and the Sea a few years back, and thought it was one of the best books I had ever read. There is something about Ernest Hemingway's understated style that allows his narratives to draw the reader in even more deeply. This narrative was no different, Hemingway lays out the scene and it just comes to life inside the reader’s head. This was written for the “Toronto Star Weekly” in 1923 as an exotic travel article, at a time when most people never left the town they were born in. Hemingway's essay describes he and his wife's experience of the ten day Bull fighting festival held in Pamplona. Every time he referred to his wife he would call her Herself. Hemingway writes, “Maera is Herself’s favorite bull fighter.” This was an interesting element of the piece whose purpose I still do not understand. Hemingway starts this piece out as an exciting narrative of a far off destination. However by the end it had turned into a persuasive argument that bullfighters are the most amazing athletes, and that bull fighting is the most amazing sporting spectacle. Hemingway even gives up on competing these men for his own wife, “The only way most husbands are able keep any drag with their wives at all is that, first there are only a limited number of bull fighters, second there are only a limited number of wives who have ever seen bull fights.” This essay gave ordinary people a window into the culture surrounding the primary sporting event of another nation. Hemingway’s utmost respect for the Bull fighting and those who have the courage to take part in it is the most apparent takeaway from this essay. After reading this essay almost 100 years after it was written I know now that I too will someday make it to Pamplona for the first two weeks of July. 

Analysis of "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (SUMMER READING)

Title: Letter from Birmingham Jail

Author: Martin Luther King Jr.

            This essay was a very lengthy letter written by Martin Luther King Jr to eight white Alabama clergymen. He even jokes that “Never before have I written a letter this long (or should I say a book?).” It takes place during the height of racial tensions in Birmingham, Alabama. Thousands of people joined Martin Luther King Jr in lunch counter sit-ins, marches on city hall, and boycotts of downtown merchants. Hundreds of protesters were arrested during civil rights demonstrations, including King himself. While in prison he writes this letter as a response to a newspaper letter published by these clergymen calling for him to stop his campaign of nonviolent protests. King is himself also a minister and feels that as fellow men of god he must respond to them because they “are men of genuine good will.” This letter is very organized, it goes through a laid out series of points that it uses to argue against the statements put forth in the newspaper letter. King’s argument is always completely sound and he is able to discredit every criticism to his tactics in a polite and eloquent manner. He employs multiple references to the bible and Judeo-Christian morals. For example the first criticism he counters is the idea of “outsiders coming in.” King points to how “the Apostle Paul left his little village Tarus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city in the Graeco-Roman world.” While King is trying to persuade these 8 men that his cause is just, he embraces many of the criticisms that the clergymen direct towards him. In response to being called an “extremist” King does not deny this title. Instead he embraces it naming many other great men who in their own time may to have been “extremists.” This letter has been called Martin Luther King Jr’s best persuasive piece. It is not hard to see why his combination of personal anecdotes of violence against African Americans and big picture ideals makes his message impossible refute.

Analysis of "Okinawa: Bloodiest Battle of All" (SUMMER READING)

Title: Okinawa: The Bloodiest Battle of All

Author: William Manchester

This essay starts off in the present where on the Island of Okinawa veterans from the US and Japan will dedicate a monument in remembrance of all those who died there. Manchester then illustrates the sheer scale of the dead that this conflict claimed. He says, “More than 200,000 perished in the 82-day struggle- twice the number of Japanese lost at Hiroshima and more American blood than had been shed at Gettysburg.” The essay becomes much more personal when Manchester reveals to the reader that he not only took part in the battle but was twice wounded and cited for “gallantry in action and extraordinary achievement.” We learn about his experiences during the battle, specifically the horrific struggle for Sugar Loaf Hill. The narratives that he uses to describe living in a combat zone are powerful and moving.  They express the absolute horror, gore, and filth that characterize warfare. Manchester wrote this piece in 1987, most people in America did not live through the Second World War, and even fewer saw the “kill zones” the way Manchester did. He sees America as a nation that is losing its patriotism. It worries him that the American public forgets many of those who fought and died in the war that defined this life and his generation. He makes it clear how important the Battle of Okinawa is for him, he says it “was the central experience of my youth.” Manchester employs multiple writing styles to connect his message to the future, the past and the present. His message about the futility of war is carried by quotes from previous warriors, “war which was cruel and magnificent, has become cruel and squalid.” –Winston Churchill. Finally the essay ends with Manchester saying how even after all these years he still couldn’t bring himself to go to the ceremony on Okinawa because of the Japanese veterans, his explanation: “some wounds never heal.”