Cruise Trumbley

General information

Title of Book: Flags of our Fathers

Genre of Literature (historical fiction or non-fiction): non fiction

Author: James Bradley and Ron Powers

Publisher: Bantam Dell

Copyright Date: 2000

Number of pages (150-page minimum): 360

Setting(s): was a letter from James Bradley, Iwo Jima

Characters:

Doc Bradley

He was an undertaker when he returned home from being enlisted in the marines. He was originally supposed to go into the nay but he was moved into the marines. He later died of a stroke in 1994

Rene Gagnon

He was one of the men that raised the flag and actually survived it. It gives his description as a handsome man. He was basically controlled his whole life by his mother and then his wife. 

Ira Hayes

He was a huge alcoholic after he got back home from the war. He was also in the crew of men that raised the flag and survived. He was a very calm and thought provoking man. 

Mike Strank

This was another man that was there to raise the flag, but he sadly didn’t survive it. He was seen as a natural born leader and he was a very honest and loyal man. He was also a very devote catholic. 

Harlon Block

This man was also a flag raiser who died on Iwo Jima. He was actually in the famous photo that was taken and his was always mistaken for someone else in the picture. He was born and raised in Texas and he was really good at football. 

Book summary/point of view
It starts out with them going to Iwo Jima to see the area where their father had raised he flag. This was written in the perspective of James Bradley because his father died and he decided to try and research all the flag raisers he had been with and to see what his fathers past was like. So he tried to find all of the rest of the survivors of the war. This was during world war II. This influences the story because it is finding out history from a secondary source, and it is like some sort of mission to find out his fathers past. 

Application questions

What is the most important event in the book? Why is it the most important? When does this event take place in the book (page numbers)? 

The most important event is basically everything, because every character he comes across that his father knew is very important. That he was slowly learning of each person throughout the book. It also just kept adding more and more context behind the picture we all know and it was also important to know where it actually came from. 

Choose one character – Give a more detailed description of their role in the book, and then compare them to someone you know personally today.

Doc Bradley

He was an undertaker when he returned home from being enlisted in the marines. He was originally supposed to go into the nay but he was moved into the marines. He later died of a stroke in 1994. He was also very under appreciated. No one ever knew about what he did because he always kept it a secret. He is kind of like my dad because my dad does some pretty great things but he doesn’t like to show it a lot.

Use two quotes from the book to show new things you have learned about this time period in history. Explain what each quote helped you to better know or understand – cite page numbers. 

“It took everyone on that island and the men on the ships offshore to get the flag up on Suribachi.” – John Bradley (page 285)

This quote helped me understand that that time must have been really devastating and hard because it was around the time of World War II

“Your teacher said something about heroes… I want you to always remember something. The heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who didn’t come back.” – John Bradley (page 343)

This helped me understand that this generation of people didn’t really like to show off their accomplishments or talk about what they did there.

How might our world be different today if the historical events in your book had turned out differently? Use two different examples to explain your answer. 

I think that if they didn’t raise that flag that they would have given people hope to keep fighting, because in the book it said that when they raised that flag that they captured that area because of the flag, ad it gave people the will to fight.  Also that we would really know about Iwo Jima, because this was a very small island like the book said.

What are three life lessons that can be learned from this book – how does each apply to your life? 

One I can learn that I should be humble in everything I do because I would rather have less people know abut what I did because most of the stuff I do isn’t as important as things other people did. The second is that I should keep in touch with people I know because I don’t want to forget the people that make the best memories. The third is that I should love my parents more because they got me into this world to do everything I have done. 

If you were to give this book an alternate title, what would it be? Explain why. 

I wouldn’t because it seems like a really good title the ay it is because it is about the flag and picture of what happened on Iwo Jima. That it was all revolving around the fact to was the flag of our founding fathers. Also that they honored them by fighting to keep it up. 

Explain in about 50 words why you would or would not recommend this book to your classmates. 

I would recommend this because I learned a lot about this subject. Before I never knew where the picture even came from. Also that it taught me where it was and the people that were involved in the making of this photo an the ives that were lost to make it happen.

No other sources used besides the book.