Author: jdorr24

In the book Allies by Alan Gratz, Henry, a black medic, says, “I’m going to patch you up and get you back in the fight. And yes, I already noticed that I’m black.” This quote really shows how people didn’t (and still don’t) accept black people for who they were. Instead, they judged them by the color of their skin.

During World War ll, like World War l, the military was segregated, meaning that African Americans could still fight (at the end of the war), but they couldn’t fight with the whites. Henry is not a soldier, he is a medic, meaning that he could help white soldiers. Actually, African Americans were given non-combat roles in the military at the beginning of the war.

So my question is: Why was Henry racially abused, or simply overlooked because of his color?

My other example wasn’t that good, so here is a prime example: In the book, Henry finds two soldiers. One of them is burned, while the other one has a collapsed lung that Henry discovered, yet Henry is black, so the soldiers don’t think he is right. The soldier with burns calls over another white medic, who comes to the same conclusion that Henry had. The white medic, angry, says to the soldier:

“Private, I want you to take a good look around this beach. Do you see the explosions? The bullets? The bodies? Do you see the boats that are dumping hundreds more soldiers into this meat grinder every minute? There’s maybe one medic for every fifty wounded soldiers on this beach, for every hundred, and you call me over to get a second opinion? What makes you think this man knows anything more or less about what he’s talking about than I do?”

“Bourke didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. They all knew why. Because Henry was black.” 

This quote is a prime example of what was happening in World War ll because many black people who were in the army (and even those who weren’t) were disrespected for one thing and one thing only:

Because of their skin color. 

That’s a wrap! Thanks for reading!!

Source: Military Times. 2020, www.militarytimes.com/military-honor/
black-military-history/2018/01/30/
african-american-gis-of-wwii-fighting-for-democracy-abroad-and-at-home/.
Accessed 24 Apr. 2020.

As many of you have read in my first blog post, Allies by Alan Gratz takes us all the way back to World War ll in France. However, the book is written from many different perspectives. Relating to that, a new character has been introduced. His name is James McKay, and he is a pilot for the Canadians. In this post, however, rather than characterizing James, I will talk about one specific setting in the book and the mood of the setting.

The setting that I want to describe is the train tracks (and the things around them, of course). First of all, these train tracks have been very important so far in the story, and I think that they also played a major role in World War ll transportation-wise. The Allied powers in World War ll also tried to stop, or slow down German trains, which were usually full of war material. This helped them in two ways:

1. The Allies would access to extra war material
2. The Allies would stop war material from making it to the Germans

Thanks for reading my blog post. This one was short, but I think once I get a little deeper into the story, then I will start to write more.

After three years of absence from blogging, I have returned! All my blog posts from elementary school are gone, but anyway, let’s get to the book:

The book that I have decided to read was Allies by Alan Gratz. It’s really good so far. Much like All American Boys, it is told from multiple characters’ perspectives. The two characters that I have read about so far are Dee and Samira. They are both considered protagonists as they are both working for the Allies in World War ll. Dee is a U.S. soldier. However, his real name is actually Dietrich Zimmermann, and he is German. Dee is fighting against his home country, not just for war purposes, but for revenge. Dee’s uncle got taken away when Dee was living in Nazi Germany as a little boy, and this is his revenge. Dee is also fighting alongside his friend, Sid, who is Jewish, so they both are determined to destroy the Nazis.

Samira is the second character introduced in the book. Samira is a French spy, who is part of the French Resistance. Like Dee, however, there is also a little twist to her: she is Algerian. At the time, Algeria was a French colony who wanted to gain their independence. Samira was not liked by the girls in her school, nor her headmistress. She wasn’t allowed parts in school plays, and the day she wore a headscarf to school, the headmistress banned it. Samira wants to try and save her mother, who was taken away by the Nazis as they were going to deliver a message to the Maquis, French Resistance soldiers, who were still fighting for the Allies. Her father was also taken away by the Nazis earlier in the war.

I hope that these characters continue to grow throughout the book. These were just my thoughts about them. Thanks for reading.