Black Hawk Hawk Down Summary

The Black Hawk War was a major conflict between the United States of America and the Native Americans. It, like many Native American versus America wars, is fairly unknown. It took place in the year of 1832. There are many things one should know about the Black Hawk War, such as what started it, the major military events, and what happened once the war was finished.

Mark Bowden once wrote, “No one gets behind, you know that.” The story, Black Hawk Down, provides information not only about war, but values in life. Mark Bowden expresses these values throughout the story and they are beneficial for a teenager in high school. In this story, the soldiers experience the true horror of the Battle of Mogadishu and are exposed to combat. Mark Bowden expresses the terrors of this war through the voices of the soldiers on both the American side and the Somali side. Although this book has many unpleasant features, it can educate an American teen valuable lessons. The book, Black Hawk Down, provides academic, social, and nationalistic benefits for a high school student.

I read this book in high school, and I really enjoyed it. After we were finishing reading the book we had a guest speaker who was a Vietnam war vet come into our class and speak on different parts of the book. I picked this short story to do my paper on because I felt like I had the most connection to this story because of my prior knowledge from reading the book. I do think I am getting some parts confused with the short story and the book. I know when I read the book in high school some chapters were very dull and boring but others were exciting and interesting. After reading the short story it was just a refreshment of the interesting things that happened in the book.

Mark Bowden is a teacher, columnist for Atlantic Monthly, playwright, and a writer. His book Black Hawk Down A Story of Modern War a world wide bestseller that spent more than a year in the New York Times bestseller list and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Bowden also worked on the script for Black Hawk Down, a film version of the book, directed by Ridley Scott. Bowden is also the writer of the bestseller Killing Pablo The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw in 2001, which tells the story of the hunt for Colombian drug lord billionaire Pablo Escobar. He is the author of Doctor Dealer published in 1987, Bringing the Heat made in1994, Our Finest Day made in 2002, and also Finders Keepers

Given that this book is written similarly to how a story would be written, it is easy to become absorbed into its pages. I really appreciated that it was, for the most part, structured on a timeline. Russell does an outstanding job of conveying the hardships, dreams, and emotions of those she writes about. Following the lives of different families from the beginning of their misfortune until the very end of the war (for many, the end of their lives), it is incredibly effective in stirring up emotion in all but the most heartless of

impacts on the soldiers. This novel depicts the life as a soldier in the German Army fighting

The soldiers that were in Vietnam were subject to horrors that they should not have because it was useless and their time in Vietnam turned to communism anyway. In the book Fallen Angels the soldiers in it had to

The Vietnam war was a horrifying experience for not only the soldiers that were shipped away, but for the families involved. Many people go to war because they want to fight for their country and imagine that they are capable of being able to survive the entire tour of duty. For some people survival is much harder than others, but by keeping a good mental state, being able to handle death, and creating friends are beneficial to anyone. In the book, Fallen Angels, Richie and the other men on his squad have to learn how to survive the war and be able to find a balance within their lives to do so.

Wars have always been events that I enjoy learning about, reading about and just discovering what went on. So when this project rolled around I had no problem choosing the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, which was written by Erich Maria Remarque. Erich had been a German soldier towards the end of WWI and had, first hand experienced the pure terror that is war. I had heard of this book through my father who is also a major war enthusiast. Him and I have had numerous conversations about both World War I and II, as he was the one that originally suggested I read this book. I have to say that it was a tremendous suggestion in that this novel to me seems to be one of the finest pieces of anti-war literature ever penned. The way the novel is able to portray the mindset of a soldier was beautifully done and shows the complete deterioration that occurs over time.

The Black Hawk War of 1832 had happened due to the constructing tension among the Sauk Indians, Fox Indians and the United States, in 1832. Black Hawk was born in a Sauk village and became a Native American leader. His Sauk village was near the current day Rock Island, Illinois. The Sauk village changed drastically between the different seasons. When the summer came around, the Sauk Indians would use their home for raising corn. It was also used as a burial site. The winter time was unalike. The Sauk’s would move through the Mississippi to hunt for food and to fur trap. Black Hawk had lead many war gatherings and he was the leader of the “Black Hawk War.”

Bullets whiz by his head as soldiers drop to the ground around him. Some are shot dead. Some are wounded. Some are cowering in fear, trying to preserve their lives. Blood, limbs, smoke, and fire stain the battlefield like a painters’ canvas. Some try to carry on, leading their brothers to victory. Others stay still, crying to themselves about loved ones back home. War has everlasting traumatic effects on people. The soldiers that do survive will never live the same lives they did before the war. Tim O’Brien’s book The Things They Carried does a great job explaining the effects of war on soldiers through many stories O’Brien experienced during the Vietnam War. From trying to escape the war, to his buddy Kiowa dying in muck, O’Brien expertly

All of the sickness and under fed soldiers that just wanted to come home. Also, when the Creightons receive letters and Bill claims he didn't fire the shot that killed Tom and the small hospital that Shad stayed in when he was injured and when Jenny married him. There are many sad and depressing sides of the book when Tom dies and when the author describes Eb when he doesn’t look like the young healthy Eb. She shows that the war wasn’t just a big adventure like all of the young soldiers thought it was but a horror story full of death and

“Suddenly, as if someone was shooting them inside my brain, all the massacres I had seen since the day I was touched by war began flashing in my head. Every time I stopped shooting to change magazines and saw my two lifeless friends, I angrily pointed my gun into the swamp and killed more people.” (Beah 119). This is one of the most powerful quotes in the book. As you’re reading you understand that this is just the beginning and it only gets worse from here on out. This is the life of a child soldier.

Before I opened this book, I thought to myself that this was going to be a difficult and boring book to read. After the first twenty pages of reading, I was hooked on the book and started to find out more information page by page. It was interesting to me mostly because it was based upon facts that actually occurred during the Vietnam War. The one part of the book that I enjoyed most was towards the end of the book where they said how

Combining all these serious themes into a very entertaining book should attract many readers. However, there was some confusion with the story line. Since this book is a collection of interviews, it wasn’t a conventional story. When I first started the book, I wasn’t sure why I was jumping from country to country and why each story was completely different. As I continued to read the book, I was able to understand that these were a collection of eyewitness accounts of the war. Also, Max Brooks uses a rife amount of vulgar language which I think could have been kept out. However, it made it real and that’s what this book is about.