WW2 Letter Outline

Who you are and how you decided:

I decided to be a woman working in a factory in America. I picked this role because when I first thought of women working during World War Two, I thought of Rosie the Riveter, and as soon as that image came to mind, I thought of the women in my family and our feminist beliefs. I just thought it would be fun/interesting to write a letter in the role of a woman living in a time where feminism was coming up in the world.

Research:

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/rosie/Rosie_the_Riveter_Women_in_the_Factories_of_World_War_II.htm

http://frank.mtsu.edu/~kmiddlet/history/women/wh-wwii.html

http://www.nps.gov/pwro/collection/website/rosie.htm

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/women_WW2.htm

http://www.massaflcio.org/1941-women-take-over-factory-work-during-world-war-ii

http://www.acepilots.com/planes/factory.html

http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wwiibayarea/for.HTM

http://www.allpar.com/history/military/preparing.html

http://rjmantiques.com/images/Pacheo%20Family%20World%20War%20II.jpg

"World War II: The War at Home" By: Stuart A Kallen

Overview of tone and ideas:

I’m thinking of taking the role of a woman who’s sort of struggling, but doesn’t really want to admit it. I want the character to have a fairly big family, hence the need/struggle for money. I think she’s going to be a fan of Rosie the Riveter as well, and probably a tom boy. Her job will be building heavy machinery (I’m trying to find a specific factory name), and she’ll be fairly young. Probably around 19 or 20 or so, and have a mother who’s more of a house wife. The mom’s job is to take care of the house, and sell bread or something along those lines, and the character I’m portraying (the second oldest daughter) is going to have the job of bringing in more money from the factory she works in. The father deceased a few years ago (It’s currently 1941), and has a relative at war. That's just the image that came to mind. Not sure if I'll be able to use all of these details in my letter, since it will sort of depend on who I'm writing to. She might be considering joining the Army.

Blog #15

Many aspects of our modern world can be traced wholly or in part to World War 2 and it's aftermath. Write a blog entry in which you explain why it interests you, what you already know and what you hope to learn about it in the near future.

I'm most interested in the modern ideas of war & war crimes mostly because I feel like there's a lot to discuss and debate on about on this topic. What I already know is my opinions on war, and many of the people I talk to agree with me on these views. However, I am limited to only seeing this point of view. I am very much interested in learning about what other people have to say about modern war, and how it effects them. I'm also interested in making a comparison between past wars (such as WW2) and current wars to see what the biggest differences are in the societies they effect the most, and how they effect our societies all together.

Blog #14

Answer each of the following, and cite statistics or sources wherever appropriate:

1. What are the most interesting aspects of World Wars 1 and 2?

The most interesting aspects of WWI for me would probably be the “cause” (the assassination of Franz Ferdinand) that lead to one big chain event, The Black Hand, the alliances and their plans, and how much WWI changed war all together.

http://www.firstworldwar.com/origins/causes.htm

The most interesting aspects of WWII for me would have to include the dictators (Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, and Stalin) because they all seemed like psychotic geniuses, what the governments of Europe did to try to stop/prevent the war (treaties), the weapons and how much they destroyed and killed, and Dr. Seuss’s political cartoons.

http://www.cedarville.edu/resource/education/subjects/history/wwiijmf/dictator.htm

Example of Dr. Seuss Political cartoon: http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dspolitic/pm/10813cs.jpg

2. What do you hope to learn about these wars?

I learned a lot in Lori Fisher’s class last year about WWI and WWII so I’m not sure what else I can learn, but I know there’s plenty. I’m most interested in the triggers of battles, and such. It all seems like some sort of domino effect to me. I’d also be interested in learning about the minds of the Dictators, and how they grew up. What made them so insane? Things like that truly fascinate me.

3. How/Why are these wars important today? How do they impact and/or inform our world today? hint: think about alliances, democracies around the world, cultures, international institutions, nuclear (and other) technologies, etc.

Many weapons were formed during these wars, and changed the way we kill thousands of people. Just thinking back on what I learned about all of this makes me a little queasy. A lot of grudges between countries seemed to be formed as well due to these battles. Countries lost land, more stereotypes were formed, and some (not all) lessons were learned. Hopefully, in this sense, history will not repeat itself.