I think this was my favorite unit we’ve done so far. After 4 weeks of heavy and upsetting letters from World War 2, these love letters were like a breath of fresh air. Certainly several of them were very intense. Some of the letters were sweet but the stories that surrounded them were sad or painful. For example, some of the letters, like the ‘Dear John’ letters were sad because it was a letter that ended someone’s relationship, whether it was a short term boyfriend or a fiance. It felt like the equivalent of a breakup text from today. Some of the other letters were the last letters that men in battle wrote to their girlfriends or wives back home. Those were the worst for me, since they never knew if they were going to make it home and see their loved ones again. The worst one for me was a beautifully written love letter from Major Sullivan Ballou to his wife, Sarah, stating his undying love for her and their children before he died in combat. The most upsetting part of that letter was that it was never mailed, so neither Sarah nor the children learned of these final, parting words from the man they all loved.
Something that stuck out to me was the artful and poetic language that so many of the letters were written in. Many of the love letters that we had read previously were written beautifully but very formally. This was because the only people writing letters at this point in history have received an education or their main source of reading material was the Bible.
That is why one of my favorite letters was from Sidney Diamond to his girlfriend, Estelle Spero. His letters stood out to me because they were incredibly humorous. He wrote his letters to her in a thick, New York accent. He talked about how he was “tough” because he slept on the ground. Then, about halfway through his letters, he would stop writing in the accent and write very sweetly to her about how much he loved her and missed her.
The vulnerability of the letters that these men at war wrote to their lovers back home is admirable. Not only were they writing to reassure people that they were alive and safe, but many of these men poured their hearts out to the people they wrote to. People like Bessie and Chris from My Dear Bessie had never met each other, but they fell in love through their vulnerability and intimacy in their letters.
That, in my opinion, is the most magical part of letter writing.So often we hear about the horrors of war and the way that it ruined people’s lives and tore families and lovers apart, but there were also so many instances of good. War brought people together out of the goodness of their hearts. What started as sending a letter to a stranger at war to boost his morale became long lasting friendships or lifelong marriages.
