Greatest Generation World War II was not simply the time of war, or simply the war of fighting, or fighting simply for winning. It was a period in which new ideas were made, lives were changed, and lessons were learned. In Tom Brokaw’s book “The Greatest Generation” these things are stored in a way so that Americans today can not only learn what happened but can also learn what valuable lessons were discovered. Each and every one of the Americans that are spoken of throughout “The Greatest Generation” did something during their life that caused a change somewhere in the world. They did something in which they should be remembered for, and which some of us, if not all, can listen and learn from. Bob Bush, Thomas and Eileen Broderick, Julia Child, “Trudy” Elion, Charles Briscoe; these are just a few of the many men and women from our country that did possible the slightest things that made a difference.
Each of their lives and actions creates at least one lesson, one word of advice that the Americans of today should have and Tom Brokaw did a great job of showing this all in one book. The Americans of the Greatest Generation were alike in so many ways, but yet Brokaw finds something different in each of them. Whether they fought for our country, saved a life in the Navy as Bob Bush did, helped create an airliner like Charles Briscoe, lived a life as Thomas Broderick did being a blind and “handicapped” man who continued his life as a working man, whether they had the ambition to help the way Julia Child did, or caused a break through in the work business for women as “Trudy” Elion did in the science department, each one of these people are respected as they were during the war for their accomplishments. These Americans had courage and strength to keep them wanting to help and wanting to make a difference. As I stated before, the people in this book were very much alike and shared many of the same characteristics which is what cause them to all be part of the Greatest Generation.
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Every single one had an emotional strength that could last an eternity and the courage to make it happen. What really impressed me about their characteristics was that just about all of them seemed to consider themselves nothing but ordinary. They had no smugness about them and when asked about their accomplishments in the past they simply would shrug, stating that they were only doing what was right. Another characteristic that they all shared was their perseverance. I have never heard of a group of people that had so much get up and go.
If something didn’t go right the first time they would get back up, dust off and start over again and again until they came out on top. The way that these people cared for each other wasn’t a one of a kind thing either. Every couple mentioned in Brokaw’s book had a love that was so strong. From the love that Eileen Broderick showed towards Thomas when he came home with no eyesight, to the letters sent between Joyce and Clarence Hagen; Brokaw gave us the insight on the trust and the regard for marriage that went on in that time. One American is quoted as saying, “Expectations were different: We had a higher regard for marriage. You just didn’t divorce.” Another is quoted saying, “I didn’t have riches but I had love.” It seemed that those that had love all cherished it more than anything.
Each story that was shared had a lesson in it, some were obvious, and others were placed between the lines a little. After reading many of the stories the lessons begin to connect together and you realize what the most important lessons really are. For me I noticed the following: These people seemed to have an appreciation for everything they had and everyone they knew. They were happy with the amount that they lived with and the lives that they lived. So many people in this time are constantly looking for more, they are never happy with what they currently have. I think that if everyone looked closely at how much more we have now than they had back then and if they really concentrated on the Greatest Generation’s attitudes they would realize that material is not everything and that lending a hand or living life at it’s fullest is more important.
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Virtues of My Life: Order, Courage, Patience In order to survive in 1996, there need to be at least some standards and goals of morality in a person's life. Moral excellence is definitely hard to achieve, but is definitely something to attempt. Personally, there are many distractions and obstructions the present day provides, creating a difficulty of direction in my own life. I need to overcome ...
We also could all learn from the courage and the honor that they carried out almost everyday. No matter what the stories of war, or jobs, or losing a loved one had been they never let that end anything. They let their courage take over. They used their courage not only to get them to the place of their outstanding actions, but to live on after that last heroic day. Many of the men talked of the mental hardships after they returned from the war, without courage I don’t think they all could ” ve kept on living.
Thomas Broderick was one of the young men who used this courage, he used it as a push to not get discouraged. Thomas lost his eyesight when he went to fight, but instead of letting that shelter his life he carried on with what every other man around him did. He found a job and did the best that he could do. However, when he realized that he couldn’t accomplish the same amount that he previously could, he accepted that. He didn’t let it ruin his life. Another American of the Greatest Generation that showed her lack of discouragement was Julia Child.
Being a woman, and a tall woman at that, she had trouble finding a way to help those in the war. When she signed up for WAVES she was rejected, but she didn’t let that stop her from doing exactly what she wanted to do. As she puts it, “I didn’t have anything but an eagerness to help.” So she got back up after being rejected and tried a different path to get to where she wanted. Another young lady who had a unique lesson to be learned through her story was Gertrude “Trudy” Elion. She was a woman who wanted to be a scientist and in the days of the war women had not yet made that kind of a break through. They weren’t expected or accepted to do that.
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But Trudy refused to give up because of the discouragement around her and later became an expert of a scientist winning a Nobel Prize for medicine. There is no way she could ” ve succeeded if she hadn’t followed her heart, she knew deep down that the right thing in the country would be if women could work just as the men could and she followed through with her dream. One of the strong lessons throughout the book is to set a goal or a dream for yourself and reach it, as Trudy did. Many people could say that every single person in this book is a great hero, but they are all ordinary people who took the extra mile to make a difference. They wanted to help, or to live a strong life. In each of these lives there is something that each individual living today could look at and use to make them a better person or let them see a light they have not yet seen.
Tom Brokaw did an extraordinary job at using the lives of the Greatest Generation to show the lessons to be learned from them and the characteristics that so many of us should pick up on. I greatly enjoyed reading the stories and I know at least one of the stories will stay with me through out my life. And if not the stories then the ideas and the knowledge that I gained from realizing what made these people so optimistic and such beneficial Americans. I got an A on this paper, includes some quotes, actualy examples, ect. It was the best scoring paper out of my class.
(11 th grade american history).
