ipl-logo

Fortunate Son Chapter Summary

1568 Words7 Pages

Fortunate Son: The Healing of a Vietnam Vet is an autobiography written by the author, Lewis B. Puller Jr. The author, Lewis B. Puller Jr. was a Vietnam veteran who wrote the autobiography about his experiences before, during, and after the Vietnam war. Fortunate Son had three main characters, firstly Chesty Puller, who was the father of Lewis B. Puller. Chesty Puller was the most decorated Marine in The United States, he served in 5 wars and his most noteworthy accomplishment, saving the First Marine Division in the retreat from the Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War. Chesty Puller was courageous and a great leader and he had a huge impact the next his son Lewis B. Puller Jr. Lewis B. Puller, the main character in the book, was hugely influenced …show more content…

I think that anyone who reads this book could learn something or at least make them think about the the Vietnam war and its consequences on soldiers. I recommend the book heavily recommend this book to anyone, however I do believe it be would make the book a small amount better if the person reading it had a basic understand of the Vietnam war and had thoughts/opinions about the war because this book really made me rethink my opinions and what I thoughts about the war. However, even if you don’t have a understanding of the Vietnam war, I would still recommend the book because of it’s excellent descriptions and thought provoking quotes. For example, one quote that really made think about the war and its consequences is when Lewis just got a job and he began to think “Unable to complete a task on my own and too isolated to ask for help, I decided that I was a failure as a lawyer, a husband, and a father, and I began contemplating suicide.” When I first read this quote it was extremely thought provoking and not only made me think about the Vietnam war, but war in general, and when war is justified to ruin so many lives. This example from the book is one of many thought provoking statements, which is what makes me recommend this book to

Show More
Related

  • Unbroken Quotes

    872 Words  | 4 Pages

    Helen Keller once stated, “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of the trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved” (Helen Keller Quotes). In the novel Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, the author visualizes Louie Zamperini’s experiences in the war and what he does to diminish the obstacles that faced him. Through Louie’s conflicts he builds his character from the atrocities he endured. In doing so he grows and develops as a person and learns the value of life.

    Read More

  • Realistic Depiction Of War In Fallen Angels By Walter Dean Myers

    654 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fallen Angels Have you a reader ever wondered about the realistic depiction of war: how the war is romanticized and how it can be an awful place to be? The author Walter Dean Myers shows us the depiction of the war in Vietnam the main character in the book Richard Perry a young boy from Harlem being thrown into the war because of his life at home and doesn't want to really deal with people. The book Fallen Angels is a realistic depiction of war. The book shows us some untimely deaths, graphic violence and the main protagonist inner thoughts and doubts. Through the novel Fallen Angels the depiction of war is shoved into the main characters face with graphic violence untimely deaths that occur and the

    Read More

  • Truong's A Viet Cong Memoir

    937 Words  | 4 Pages

    In A Viet Cong Memoir, we receive excellent first hands accounts of events that unfolded in Vietnam during the Vietnam War from the author of this autobiography: Truong Nhu Tang. Truong was Vietnamese at heart, growing up in Saigon, but he studied in Paris for a time where he met and learned from the future leader Ho Chi Minh. Truong was able to learn from Ho Chi Minh’s revolutionary ideas and gain a great political perspective of the conflicts arising in Vietnam during the war. His autobiography shows the readers the perspective of the average Vietnamese citizen (especially those involved with the NLF) and the attitudes towards war with the United States. In the book, Truong exclaims that although many people may say the Americans never lost on the battlefield in Vietnam — it is irrelevant.

    Read More

  • Ethical Issues In The Vietnam War

    1101 Words  | 5 Pages

    “I thought the Vietnam war was an utter, unmitigated disaster, so it was very hard for me to say anything good about it” - George McGovern. There are numerous controversial topics dispersed among the subject of American history due to the amount of unethical decisions that have been made in order to improve the lives of the people or keep America out of the clutches of war. Throughout American history, historians have debated the ethical impact that the Vietnam war had on the United States. Although some people may believe that the Vietnam War achieved the goal of avoiding communism and protecting the people, the overarching idea is that it was an unjust war because of the countless lives that were lost from the participating countries, the

    Read More

  • Claude Wheeler In Willa Cather's One Of Ours

    1261 Words  | 6 Pages

    Perhaps there are many sons like Wheeler who found identity in war. Then again we have his older brother Bayliss that sought identity as a businessman. So it makes one wonder just why war gave Wheeler a very distinct purpose. I find that it is because the meaning of his livelihood changed, this was his upshot into the reality of being needed. Wheeler was no longer just a person, he became one to be viewed as a treasure or placed on a pedestal for his devout courage and selflessness.

    Read More

  • Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: A Literary Analysis

    1292 Words  | 6 Pages

    Readers, especially those reading historical fiction, always crave to find believable stories and realistic characters. Tim O’Brien gives them this in “The Things They Carried.” Like war, people and their stories are often complex. This novel is a collection stories that include these complex characters and their in depth stories, both of which are essential when telling stories of the Vietnam War. Using techniques common to postmodern writers, literary techniques, and a collection of emotional truths, O’Brien helps readers understand a wide perspective from the war, which ultimately makes the fictional stories he tells more believable.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried Character Analysis Essay

    1264 Words  | 6 Pages

    Although he learned that he had to learn to cope with every single physical, emotional and mental stress factor that came his way. He learned with every guy in his platoon, they all stuck together. This novel was a very well written book. Each story was different, and gave a different aspect on war every time. The emotions were real, and very descriptive.

    Read More

  • A Summary Of Philip Caputo's A Rumor Of War

    1500 Words  | 6 Pages

    A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo shows the hard work and difficult tasks the men had to go through to prove themselves and protect their country. The war will change the men’s attitudes and the way they do everything. Men made sacrifices in the Vietnam War most people would never make in a lifetime, they will not just sacrifice but push themselves physically harder than most any other men. The men will also emotionally change from constantly watching other men die, or killing other men. The mens first kill was always the hardest for them, mentally they had so many thoughts of the other mans close ones back home and what they would go through and how it would be all their fault.

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Best War Ever Sparknotes

    756 Words  | 4 Pages

    The book The Best War Ever, by Michael C. C. Adams, is about World War II, the events that led up to the war, and the years following the war. Adams starts the book off explaining some myths that people have about the war. The biggest myth associated with the war is that it was the best war ever. Adams then spends the rest of the book talking about why this may or may not be true. In the following chapters, Adams explains the events that led to the war and the events that accorded during World War II.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried: An Analysis

    688 Words  | 3 Pages

    He fought a war in Vietnam that he knew nothing about, all he knew was that, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (38). He realized that he put his life on the line for a war that is surrounded in controversy and questions. Through reading The Things They Carried, it was easy to feel connected to the characters; to feel their sorrow, confusion, and pain. O’Briens ability to make his readers feel as though they are actually there in the war zones with him is a unique ability that not every author possess.

    Read More

  • Vietnam War Literary Criticism

    925 Words  | 4 Pages

    Literary analysis America’s war heroes all have the same stories to tell but different tales. Prescribed with the same coloring page to fill in, and use their methods and colors to bring the image to life. This is the writing style and tactic used by Tim O’Brien in his novel, “The Things They Carried”. Steven Kaplan’s short story criticism, The Undying Certainty of the Narrator in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, provides the audience with an understanding of O’Brien’s techniques used to share “true war” stories of the Vietnam War. Kaplan explains the multitude of stories shared in each of the individual characters, narration and concepts derived from their personal experiences while serving active combat duty during the Vietnam War,

    Read More

  • Jasper Jones Racism Quotes

    741 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Vietnam War is going on in the background of the novel and affects a character called Jeffrey. Jeffrey is a young Vietnamese boy. His family is not welcome in the small town of Corrigan and are abused and bullied. In the novel Jeffrey’s mother gets hot water spilt on her because the ladies husband died in the

    Read More

  • Summary Of John F Kerry's Speech Against The Vietnam War

    1573 Words  | 7 Pages

    This is particularly impactful segment of the speech due to the fact that Kerry explains how the soldiers of Vietnam will not stay quiet and keep America’s so called dirty secret, but stand up and expose the wrongdoing that was done by America. For example, “We who have come here to Washington have come here because we feel we have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country, we could be quiet, we could hold our silence, we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, not the reds, but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out”(John F. Kerry). Kerry also defends the people of Vietnam in the sense that they do not even fully grasp the reasoning behind the war in the first place. It is here that Kerry makes the point that the Vietnam war is a destructive waste of human life and time.

    Read More

  • Ho Chi Minh's Letter More Persuasive Than Lyndon B. Johnson

    280 Words  | 2 Pages

    I find Ho Chi Minh’s letter far more persuasive than Lyndon B. Johnson’s. Using ethos, pathos, and logos, he forms a solid argument that supports Vietnam’s stance on the war. He appeals to one’s emotions by expressing the injustices faced by his people, writing, “In South Viet-Nam a half-million American soldiers and soldiers from the satellite countries have resorted to the most barbarous methods of warfare, such as napalm, chemicals, and poison gases in order to massacre our fellow countrymen, destroy the crops, and wipe out villages.” Words such as “massacre” and “barbarous” highlight the severity of these crimes, and invoke feelings of guilt and remorse in the reader. Chi Minh uses ethos to support his logos, or logical, views on the

    Read More

  • Where Have You Gone Charming Billy Critical Analysis

    763 Words  | 4 Pages

    The soldiers in the Vietnams war were there for different reasons, some soldiers were forced against their will and some were there by choice. Because of that, each soldier has their own thoughts about the war, O’Brien has interpreted that “The twenty –six men were very quiet: some of them excited by the adventure, some of them afraid”. This clearly shows how the men

    Read More

More about Fortunate Son Chapter Summary

Open Document