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The Killer Angels Essay

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The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara is not just a telling of the Battles of Gettysburg, but includes fictional accounts on a real event. It takes you back in time to some of the bloodiest battles in our nation’s history, where one side fought for freedom, and the other fought for a new way of life. The novel takes you on a journey through the eyes of various leaders from the Union and Confederate sides, including Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Arthur Fremantle, John Buford, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. The book includes the four days both leading to and including the most courageous and nation changing battles of America’s history. I would recommend this book to all high school readers and any readers who have a desire to read a …show more content…

Shaara does an excellent job of bringing the fact that these people were real into perception, and had to go through outstanding difficulties. They had to make decisions that would make their goals into a reality, and with that came casualties. Shaara also spends a perfect amount of time explaining each person in the story, and then includes what occurred in their past to make them have the beliefs they fight for in the war. The Killer Angels doesn’t only focus on the physicality of the war, but the mental and emotional factors that all participants had to deal with. It allowed the reader to understand why each person was on the side they were on, despite the reader’s personal opinion of what was the right side. It truly brings the fact that these events and people were real into perspective, and that these people were not just pawns in the war but had families and people who cared for them at home. They had problems every person has, but also had a war they had to fight for. The Killer Angels shows the difficult aspects of imposing morals, especially when it was between former friends and even family members. The war had many effects on American society, including relationships being destroyed. The author really makes the reader understand the reality of the Civil War, and how it was not just about the physical

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