|
|
|
|
|
Killer Angels
|
|
|
The Killer Angels Michael Shaara, the author of The Killer Angels, was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1928. During a visit to Gettysburg, he saw the battlefield and learned about the battle and its significance. He returned home with an idea to write a historical novel based on the battle. The Killer Angels was published in 1974 and it won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1975. The novel was made into a movie in 1993 called Gettysburg. It starred Martin Sheen and Jeff Daniels. After the movie was released, the novel shot to number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Since then, Shaara's son Jeff has written two more Civil War novels that detail the events preceding and following his father's book. According to Dictionary.com a historical novel is “A novel that re-creates a period or event in history and often uses historical figures as some of its characters.” With that said, one would tend to think that a historical account of Gettysburg would be much more fact-based. Most other novels about Gettysburg are fact-based, but The Killer Angels is not. Shaara’s account is factual, but the facts are not the basis of the entire novel. He lets the reader know what is going on in the minds of the soldiers. A historical account would merely list possible motivations of actions based on the history of that particular person, while Shaara adds minor events for the story’s sake. He uses details such as interactions between soldiers and weather to describe battle scenes, when a historical account would focus more on the tactical decisions of battle. In “To the Reader,” Shaara says that he took historical license with a few minor issues. To clear up the plot, he shortened some of the action and he took out small characters so that the novel would not be too long ( It’s long enough as it is.). He also adjusted some of the slang and speech of the men so that it would make more sense to the modern readers. Shaara also used letters and journals of the men that were there instead of the traditional historical accounts of Gettysburg. E.M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) was one of the most important English writers of the 20th century. He published during the Edwardian Age. He attended the King’s College at Cambridge University, where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in both Classical Literature and History. He later earned a Master’s Degree in History. After he graduated he lived in Italy and Greece. He was in the Red Cross branch that was stationed in Egypt during World War I. He became and honorary Fellow of the King’s College at Cambridge in 1946. He stayed at Cambridge until he died. Forster’s famous novels include Where Angels Fear to Tread, The Longest Journey, and A Room With a View. A Passage to India is considered to be his most important work. It was published in 1924. After 1928, he started to focus more on non-fiction. He published collections of essays and literary criticism. Woodrow Wilson Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was the 28th President of the United States. He served two terms from 1913 to 1921. He was born in Virginia and after graduating first from Princeton and then the University of Virginia, he was a lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia. After only a year as a lawyer, he went to John Hopkins University to study political science. After receiving a Ph.D. in 1886, he taught history and political economy at Brywn Mawr and Wesleyan University. He later became President of Princeton. He eventually relinquished his position at Princeton and was prompted to run for governor of New Jersey. The Democratic political machine helped him to win, but he soon left it to help support more progressive policies. Wilson won the presidential election of 1913 as the democratic nominee. Wilson saw himself as a protector of the American people. He passed several important laws, including the lowering of tariffs, and antitrust legislation, the prohibition of child labor, the requirement for eight hour days for railroad workers. Wilson won his second term with the slogan “He kept us out of war,” but after his election he started to believe that the US needed to intervene in World War I. American support helped the Allies win the war. He spent time in Paris working for a long lasting peace after Germany signed the Armistice of 1918. After a national tour to rally support for the Versailles Treaty, he had a stroke. His second wife, Edith Bolling Gait, took care of him until he died.
|
|
|
|
Still Can't Find What Your Looking For? Then Try a Essay Search!
|
