Ron Kovic's Born On The Fourth Of July

Kovic's "Born On The Fourth Of July"

This was an extremely powerful book. Ron Kovic is very able to get his

point accross to the reader. He brings you throughout his life showing you, no.

. . showing cannot describe the feeling adequately enough. He puts you into his

life, when he goes through the trenches, you go with him. When he hits a home

run for little league you can experience, not the joy it brought him at the time,

but the pain in remembering that joy now that he can no longer do those things.

When he makes love with a woman in mexico you can completely understand how

stirring, meaningful and frightening the experience is for him.

This is a book about self discovery. From beginning to end, you see him

struggling to survive life. He is constantly trying to be the best at

everything. From the very start he was working out his arms trying to make

himself bigger that way to make up for being to short. He joined the cub scouts

with his friends and marched in the memorial day parade. He hit a home run his

first time at bat in little league. When he grew he joined the wrestling team

and constantly won first place in competition. When he lost, it was so

emotional that he would cry. He would do anything to be first, even if it meant

incredible agony.

The coaches made us do sit-ups, push-ups, and spinning drills until

sweat poured down our faces and we were sure we'd pass out. "Wanting to win and

wanting to be first, that's whatÔs important," the coaches told us. "Play fair,

but play to win," they said. They worked us harder and harder until we thought

we couldn't take it anymore and then they would yell and shout for us to keep

going and drive past all the physical pain and discomfort. "More! More!" they

screamed. "If you want to win, then you[Ôre going to have to work! You're

going to have to drive your bodies far beyond what you think you can do. You've

got to pay the price for victory! You can always go further than you think you

can."

Kovic wanted so much to be a hero, to be all of his heroes rolled up in

one. He would do anything to achieve that goal.

The way that Kovic writes this book makes it even more incredible. He

jumps around in his life, telling you things in, what I believe is, their order

of importance to him. He begins by describing to you the feeling of being shot

and what is going on arou...

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...went to war voluntarily. It took this life changing

event for Kovic to change how he thought of his country. It took many deaths

and many years of trying to understand himself before he could see with open

eyes how unjust America had been to him and his fellow veterans.

I loved this book, it is so incredibly moving and you want to cry and

hope that he will be able to walk again, but he just leaves you there with the

memory of that old song. You want to turn the page and find another chapter,

but there is none to be found. You want to know that everything will be all

right, but it won't be. This is not one of those stories that you can read and

then disconnect yourself from it, saying it could never happen to you. I think

about Kovic's story a lot. It sticks with you in your mind very clearly

reminding you of it's existence. This is not a fictional character that you can

write off, this is not just a story. This man exists and he let's you know he

it. This is one of the best written books I have ever read and, were it not so

unsettling, I would read it again and again. But it is definitely one of those

books that everyone should read at least once in their life time.