Last Man Standing Essay

Last Man Standing by Norman Collins was quite an eye opening read. It walks the reader through the life of a WWI soldier on a daily basis. Norman Collins’ life revolved around the war. He joined when he was still a teenager and saw the battle through to its end. The hundreds of letters he sent home are written in great detail, regarding anything from his daily training routine to what he ate for dinner and also his requests for care packages. What better way to learn about WWI then from reading letters sent home from a soldier that lived it first hand. While reading this book you can almost visualize yourself in Normans shoes getting up at the crack of dawn every morning and going to battle.

After reading this book, I have gained huge respect
Simple things we may take for granted on a daily basis like a comfortable bed to sleep on or a hot shower after a long day are definitely not perks of joining the army. Early on in his career, Norman sent a letter home that mentioned how that night he had slept on an iron bedstead with two blankets. The most surprising thing is that the next thing he said was that it was rough but he enjoyed it. Those are the words of a man that is willing to make sacrifices to get where he wants to be in life. It’s interesting that I said “man”, although Norman may act like a man, incredibly he is only a teenager at the time. These soldiers were not high maintenance to say the least, as this lifestyle was anything but glamorous. By the time Norman was assigned to the trenches, the quality of life really diminished. It was a miserable battle, as the soldiers were constantly wet and muddy. They would use their knife to scrape the crusted mud of themselves because they would go a week on end without bathing. These grueling aspects of trench warfare were very detrimental to the soldier’s health. The constant saturation of their feet led to the dreaded trench