Comparing Protest In A Letter Home And Waiting For Dan

Protesting is the act of acting out against something. It is a way of showing that what has been done is wrong and needs to stop. People rebel so others can understand the wrongs of their actions. In a letter titled "A Letter Home" and a story called "Waiting for Dan" the act of protesting is brought up. Even though the two works are written during two different time periods and have different means for the protests, in a way they are similar. They both were acts against the government's behavior and during the separate protests people got injured. Although many protests may not seem to be related they all have a way of tying into each other.
In “A Letter Home” a girl named Kara writes to her parents about the wrongs of the government and the students at her college, Kent State University. The time the letter was written was in the 1970’s. Before Kara got into the letter she stated the date, “May 5, 1970,” which is the exact day the letter was written.

Another way to know the aforementioned letter was written in the 1970’s is by the events it talks about. Kara writes, “Many students were outraged when they heard that U.S. soldiers had invaded Cambodia on April 30”(2). This quote helps understand the time period because the invasion of Cambodia took place in April through July of 1970. While Kara was writing in the 1970’s years before that someone was waiting for their husband Dan. The story “Waiting for Dan” has a setting of the 1960’s, the time of the Civil Rights Movement. The text explicitly states, “In 1960, four African-American college freshman sat down at a “whites only” lunch counter, and nothing has been the same since then”(2). It is clear that the story is taking place during the 1960’s because the narrator would not say that everything has been changing if that protest was not still affecting everyone. Adding on, the narrator writes, “In the early sixties, the Southern states practiced what they called the “separate but equal” treatment of African Americans”(5). This quote is referring to the Freedom Rides that were taking place, and considering that the husband Dan was on one that makes it pretty clear that the time period is the 1960’s.
Another difference between the two stories is the types of protests.

Kara writes about the extremes the students are going to. She states, “A day or two after that, some young people burned the ROTC building on campus and set bonfires downtown. I heard that police cars were hit with bottles and store windows were broken”(2). This quote shows that the activists were taking violent actions. Furthermore, they were damaging things so that the government would hear the message of hate they were trying to make. Instead of taking the violent option, the Freedom Riders from “Waiting for Dan” took a route of peacefulness. The wife states, “The ride seemed simple enough”(4). This simple, yet small quote shows that the Freedom Riders did not mean any harm. They ride had an easy plan of acting out. In addition, their only goal was to get their point across without causing any harm to others. The activists wanted freedom and equality, not violence. In brief, there is a simple difference between acts of violence and acts of

peace.
Even though the stories seem completely different in a way they are very similar. In both “A Letter Home” and “Waiting for Dan” the protests were against the wrongs of the government. Kara writes, “We should not be in Vietnam, but burning buildings and throwing rocks at the police will not help”(7). Although Kara is seemingly against the protests, she does know that the only reason they took place was because the government decided to let the army step a foot on the grounds of Cambodia. Given these points, there would have been no protests if the government did not give them a reason to get angry. While waiting for Dan to return home the narrator talks about how the Freedom Riders came about. She says that people wanted equality for all the races, but many were against that idea. The government was not helping the African-Americans get their freedom. They basically sat back and relaxed as people were violent killed based off the pigment of their skin. The Freedom Riders wanted to know that we are all the same, and since the government was not helping that message get through they took action into their own hands. The only reason that the rides were created was because the government did absolutely nothing. So I ask, is the government really helping the country?
Another similarity between the two literary works is that during the protests people were either killed or wounded. In “A Letter Home” Kara talks about how the National Guardsmen were carrying rifles on the campus. Letter on she talks about how shots were fired, which lead on to her stating, “Four Kent State students died, and nine students were wounded”(6). The National Guard shot at college students for believing in something. They killed them, people still referred to as children. During “Waiting for Dan,” the wife states, “An angry crowd mobbed one bus, and riders were savagely beaten; the other bus was firebombed”(6). This quote shows that as the Freedom Riders were being peaceful people felt the need to violently hurt them. Many people have had to die or be severely injured from the events. People always say to achieve what you believe, but sometimes doing so has some dangerous setbacks.
To summarize, the two works, “A Letter Home” and “Waiting for Dan,” show many similarities and differences. At first, one would not think they could be related considering they involve two different protests and time periods, yet they tie together. They both include activists that are against the government's behavior and ones that got either murdered or wounded. Additionally, all the people mentioned in the stories felt very strongly on an important political issue. Howard Zinn once stated, “People should: Go where they are not supposed to go, Say what they are not supposed to say, and stay when they are told to leave.” This quote sums up the meaning of a protest the best way possible. Protests are meant to bend rules and break boundaries for issues to be known.