The Great Generation : The Greatest Generation

John Caulfield was the founder of a group called “ROMEO”, which stood for “Retired old men eating out” (77). This organization began with a group of teenagers that lived ordinary lives, playing baseball and swimming in creeks in a community called Kerry Corner. Caulfield’s childhood was most troubling after his father passed, in addition to the Depression years, which led to him living in poverty. Young men, such as John Caulfield, immediately enlisted into the armed forces, after news got around about the attack on Pearl Harbor. They were stuck with surprise, but most importantly patriotism to support their country in need. After the war and they returned home, they held values and morals that they learned from the war. Caulfield, and majority of the Greatest Generation, had difficulties understanding the newer generations, and why they did not hold the same values and morals that made America so great. Although, Caulfield would not become frustrated, they were “ . . . too proud and, in a way, so pleasantly surprised by how their

He had this look on his face like he was trying to remember and after a couple minutes, he answered, “I was born in 1928, and I was lucky compared to some. We were farmers, and while things were tight we came out better than many. God provided what we needed, and after things started looking better he started blessing us with even more.” My grandpa continued to tell me how those first 11 years or so of his life taught him to use everything sparingly, be smart about what you throw away, and if it isn’t broken you don’t need a new one. These lessons he learned during that time didn’t disappear. To this day, he still thinks about it and remembers the tougher times and remembers how bad the world can get. Then, going with the second question I had he continued on about how with the Depression ending there was a new problem to take its place, World War II. At first, he only heard about the war, the U.S. wasn’t that involved, but even so, everyone was working. “Donations were sent, shops needed extra help, anyone who was old enough and able-bodied was waiting for the day they’d be called up. In ‘41, when Pearl Harbor was attacked, that’s when it got bad. The U.S. joined the battle, and local men were going to war. At the time, you had to be 21 to be drafted, but with there having been an attack on U.S. it was lowered to 18. I was 13 or 14 at this time. I didn’t turn 18 until ‘45. By that time we had won, but I still signed up. I was sent to Japan in ‘46, and it was bad.” My grandpa didn’t go much further than that, but he said that every person did what they had to, everyone worked together, everyone supported. He says that he’ll never forget what some of the aftereffects were of the war and that it’s not something you can fall asleep after and just forget. The last event I inquired about was the 1969 Moon landing of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. My grandpa said

In the article “The Greatest Generation: The Great Depression and the American South,” Jeffrey DeRoven analyzes the economic struggles of the American South during the Great Depression in order to figure out why some people refer to people from that time period as the “greatest generation.” Below, this paper overviews DeRoven’s thesis, purpose, stance, audience, usage of literary techniques as well as logos, pathos and ethos, logical fallacies, and ultimately concludes with an opinion suggesting that DeRoven’s analysis is mostly sound and useful, but limited in proving his thesis.

He was born during World War I. He herd the old men tell the stories of what happened when they were in World War II. All of his family members went to some war in their life time. His Uncles Guadalcanal, North Africa and the battle of the Bulge, his Cousins stories of Korea. Then finally it was his and his brothers turn, they had joined the marines just in time for the for the Cuban Missile crisis. After that his friends going to Vietnam tasting defeat the only war that America has ever lost. Finally it is his sons turn and he gets the other end of the deal. He doesn’t know if his son will be able to tell him his stories of his war or if he will have to cry at his grave.

     There is a Motif in this book that pertains to Casualties in Vietnam. Through John we see the crippling effects of the War in Vietnam on citizens across America. We see his indecision for the direction of the rest of his life.

In Tom Brokaw’s book, The Greatest Generation, the author portrays ordinary people of a certain generation as having qualities of greatness and heroism. He tells stories of average people that lived inspiring lives through many hardships, and declares today’s society as the beneficiary of their challenging work and commitment. Brokaw’s generous and proficient use of imagery helps to persuade the reader to believe that the people of “the greatest generation” are, indeed, heroic. He defines the strength and resilience of “the greatest generation” by what they were able to confront and overcome.

“We are gradually changing from a nation of calloused hands to a nation of agile brains.” – Marcel Just. (Begley 92) This quote really speaks to me. I find it to be very true as we are focusing more on developing new technology to do the work we might be doing with our hands. It is similar to the common expression “Work Smarter not Harder”. I think that this is what the internet is letting us do. However many authors and writers do not think this is the case. They believe that the internet is making us less intelligent as it is rewiring our brain to think in order of internet articles rather than books. I on the contrary believe the internet is giving us an easy opportunity to learn which is therefore making us more intelligent.

A few years ago, I decided to learn sign language. It was not a project for a class, a requirement to graduate, or a fact that everyone knew. I just wanted to learn sign language, so I did what many twenty-first century millennials do and downloaded an app. The app showed me diagrams to learn basic phrases, videos to perfect the movements, and lessons to learn more efficiently. The technology of the app made learning sign language easy, and I could use it wherever I went. I thought that I was smart for using technology to learn specific things, but Mark Bauerlein, the author of a 2008 book called The Dumbest Generation, would disagree. According to Bauerlein, twenty-first century teenagers possess “low knowledge levels” when compared to past generations because of the increased use of technology. However, Bauerlein is mistaken. This generation is not “the dumbest generation” because we focus on different topics, we write more often, and we know that every generation has been called “the dumbest”.

Hedges opens the article by offering his firsthand experience with the negative effects of war on the poor, thus establishing credibility. Hedges states, “Those I knew in prep school did not seek out the military and were not sought by it. But in the improvised enclaves of central Maine, where I had relatives living in trailers, nearly everyone was a veteran” (321). Here, Hedges explains how the poor turned to military for a better life, whereas the rich did not have to join the military. Hedges grew up on both sides of the metaphorical railroad track. He acquired an authentic viewpoint on how the military lures in the poor with empty promises of a fast climb up the social ladder. Later in the

An example of anguish and suffering due to ‘white’ policy laws, was the attempted genocide era also known as ‘the stolen generation’ which lasted for decades (Krieken 2009).The stolen generation era was a “systematic annihilation for Aboriginal cultural identity” (Krieken 2009, p. 297) because children were forcibly taken from their families to institutional facilities that were either run by charitable or religious organizations with the intention of ‘civilizing’ them so they can integrate into white Australian society (Krieken 2009). The Australian government commissioners believed that ‘breeding mixed blood’ Aborigines with white settles will eventually lead to the “colour being bred out of them” (McCarthy 2000, para. 3) whilst those who

In a 2014 article on Psychologytoday.com, Ray Williams informs his audience about the rise of anti-intellectualism in American in an article called: Anti-Intellectualism and the “Dumbing Down” of America. Williams clams that America has suffered in intellectualism because society has dismissed science, the arts, and humanities and have been replaced by media, entertainment, and ignorance. He backs up this claim by citing Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason, Pulitzer price winner Richard Hofstadter, author of The Dumbest Generation, Mark Bauerlein, a number of studies and statistics done across the country, and as well as many other authors on this subject. Williams makes bold claims by comparing American education to Japanese,

Some might say that the 1930’s and 1940’s was the greatest generation. The 1930’s started with the Great Depression the greatest economic disaster in modern history. This generation had to deal with great sacrifice. The stock market crashed and people were forced out of their homes, lost businesses, lost their jobs, and had no help from the government. People that had left the farmlands to move to the cities for employment found themselves returning to the farm to feed their families. People that were forced to leave their homes moved into parks and abandoned lands to set-up what was called Hooverville’s (Foner 2014).

Prior to enlisting in the army, Mr. Beck worked with his father in a factory, and also raised chickens and hogs on a farm. Beck joined the army at the age of 17, and used his brother’s birthdate in order to enlist, because he was not old enough. Mr. Beck joined the army during the time of the great depression in the United States. His family was very poor during this time, and

While she didn’t care about it as much in high school, her soup kitchen experience changed that. “[I] realized how much I had been given and how others hadn’t been given as much,” explained Mayer when reflecting on her life in Chicago. While working in the soup kitchen, she noticed half of the people were disillusioned veterans. The other half was the working poor. The veterans “thought that fighting for their country would help them but it actually set them back” (Mayer).

When most people hear the label Generation –X they think of a hopeless generation of youth that have given into the pressures of the world. I would like you to think of the X as the Greek symbol for “Chi” which is used as a symbol for Christ. In this decade the youth involved in the Christianity has grown significantly. Youth are responding to the church in ways that the past generation did not. Where mom and dad embraced the tumultuous sixties their children have taken hold of Christianity. The youth organizations that promote the Protestant doctrine have seen the youth membership grow by 50% since 1990. Catholic Churches have witnessed their youth involvement double in the last decade. The youth are coming from all