Casablanca - a League of Their Own, and the Greatest Generation

Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation and the movie A League of their own caught my attention greatly because of their tremendous sentimentalism. Yet, I did not like the movie Casablanca as much. This does not diminish the fact that it was a great movie; I simply did not enjoy how the story line was portrayed. Romance and drama were evidently present, but maybe not in the way I would have liked. Yet, besides any personal opinions I may have on these two productions and book, the combination of the three taught me a lot about World War II.

The book The Greatest Generation was brilliant, if putting aside some unnecessary and excessive wording. I must admit it was not what I was expecting. I did not know what this book was about until I started to read. It took me in an emotional roller coaster that truly surprised me. It almost caught me off guard, as I was sort of expecting more of a “cold narration.” Besides how each of the stories was uniquely captivating, they all taught me one main lesson. That was how this generation was strong beyond belief in a variety of ways.

The young people of those days were forced to mature fast. They went through too many experiences too early in their lives. Young girls taking care of their siblings while mom would be in the factory; young boys who mostly were supposed to be in school were on planes shooting the enemy. Brokaw could have not described this in a better way, “at a time in their lives when their days and nights should have been filled with innocent adventure, love, and the lessons of the workaday world, they were fighting, often hand to hand, in the most primitive conditions possible...” In my opinion, to be able to lose all of this in exchange to proudly take responsibility and honor, equals strength and courage.

Not only they nearly lost their childhood and normal teenage years, but the young men and women also had to go through other horrendous experiences. Yet, what leaves me in major awe is how emotionally strong these veterans are. The nurses had to see men dying from losing blood because of a lost arm and leg, while soldiers had to see their own friends sacrificing their lives to save their fellow troops. Still,