Hiroshima By John Gard

In his article, “Hiroshima”, Greta Gard talks about the Hiroshima essay by first summarizing the essay then proceeding to the themes and other literary decisions made by Hersey. She discusses the basic premise of the essay followed by the background information on the bomb. She then continues to analyze the text based on its theme of survival and its interesting structure of leaving off on climaxes as opposed to a chronological order. She concludes with an inclusion of different opinions of the text from other literary critics. In Dan Gerstle’s article, “John Hersey and Hiroshima”, he differs from Gard in that he takes a much for look into John Hersey as a person. He begins (and ends) with relating a current event, the meltdown at Fukushima, …show more content…
The argument of “Hiroshima” was not very straightforward. She spends around half the article providing background information and then ends by citing others’ opinions of the essay. Her only real argument appears when she is discussing the themes of the essay. She argues that Hersey focuses on the survival instincts of the human race, but also isolates those traits which are strictly Japanese characteristics. Also, she argues that Hersey’s strict journalistic writing style contributes to the ironic tone which appears at times. Gerstle also argues that Hersey’s writing style originated from his background of journalism. However, Gerstle also argues that Hersey’s background developed his strong set of morals and that Hersey strays from his neutral standpoint by his inclusion of the victim's words that mimic his beliefs.I would primarily use Gerstle’s article because he provides better analysis and would be more useful source to cite in an analytical paper. I also agree with the argument he makes. Although Japan is the most westernized of the Asian countries, their views are very different from American