Charles A. Lindbergh: Lone Eagle

The novel, Charles A. Lindbergh: Lone Eagle, is a biographical novel about the life of Charles and how he became a hero by flying over the Atlantic Ocean. It starts from the beginning of his life and talks about the success and hardship he had to face throughout his life. This book was written to show how being called a hero can have its negatives. The book shows how Charles struggled to accept the role as a hero and how he tarnished his figure to the public over time, and went into depression. The novel starts off talking about how Charles’ father grew up to become an attorney. Even though his father was not necessarily bright as a child, he had an interest in politics and when he got older he was send to an academy near Sauk Center (Hixson,

He later did flying missions such as flying from St. Louis to Chicago. During this trip, he had to land due to fuel problems and realized that there was a wreckage nearby; which started his path towards being a hero. He found a mailbag filled with U.S. mail and decided to make four emergency stops to deliver the mailbags. He was then inadvertently called a hero, even though he was doing what was right in his eyes. After that, he continued to deliver mail across the U.S. until 1926, when he aspired to fly across the Atlantic to reach Paris, France. His aspiration became a reality a year later and flew from New York to France and departed at 7:54 A.M. on May 20, 1927, but there were some setbacks when he flew such as stormy weather and sleep deprivation (Hixson, 1996). At 10:24 P.M. on May 21, 1927, he landed in Le Bourget and this is when people saw Charles as a hero and celebrity across the U.S. and international borders. He flew from France to London to meet the King and to be congratulated on his flight. Once he returned back to the U.S. he was praised a hero and the U.S. citizens saw his accomplishment as a victory for the United States. “The emergence of a national media made Americans hungry for heroes like Lindbergh, whose exploits transcended the mundane” (Hixson, 1996). His legacy was being covered from every newspaper and magazine in the nation, but

This led to the downfall of Lindbergh’s name in the news and his own actions tarnished his image. It first started off with the kidnapping of his son Charles Jr. in 1932. This led to Lindbergh paying a hefty ransom, but this did not save his infant son who was murdered. This caused Lindbergh to become more vocal in U.S. and international policies. Him becoming more vocal actually started to tarnish his reputation. Before World War II, he would visit European countries and one of the countries that he visited was Germany. He believed that Germany would rise in power and saw that Germany represented the survival of the fittest (Hixson, 1996). This outraged the U.S. population, and people began to assume that he was joining the Nazi regime of Germany. “By, 1938, when terrorism against Jews and other groups became state policy in Germany, Lindbergh began to perceive the essence of Nazism” (Hixson, 1996). He then started to warn the Western civilization to not interfere with Germany, and once the people heard his remarks they lost all hope in Charles and removed the hero label off of him. He then started to criticize Western democracy which was the final straw of the U.S. citizens. They gave up hope on their former hero and essentially left him in the dust. In the end, Lindbergh didn’t ask to become a hero, but he being a heroic figure changed his demeanor on