Jim Mcenery's Hell In The Pacific

Hell In The Pacific by Jim Mcenery and Bill Sloan is a recount of the events Jim has faced and gone through from when he was recruited into the Marine Corp in World War Two all the way until the war ended. Jim McEnery’s story is amazingly told and provides insight into what an average marine went through in the Pacific theatre of the second world war. From start to finish, he uses many writing techniques that bring his adventure to life even though it happened over seventy years ago. I believe that his novel is an excellent read and is a great primary source for facts about the second world war.

One reason why I like his story so much is his use of emotions and feelings on certain people or subjects. In this memoir Jim portrays his emotions

Jim’s recitation of his military years is vividly portrayed in great detail to the point where I felt like I actually knew the people in the story or can accurately see what it is he is trying to describe. At one point in the book, Jim says, “Every day, we sent out work details to load up and haul away the putrefied coconuts. They trucked them through the quagmires that passed for streets and dumped them in the huge swamp that covered about three-fourths of the island” (Jim 193). Here he is describing how unpleasant the situations were on the island of Pavuvu which was supposed to be a place where they can relax. Earlier he also states, “There were no docks for our ships. We had to wade ashore from landing craft through a driving rainstorm. The rainy season on Pavuvu-- when more than six feet of rain (that’s seventy-two inches) falls in an average year-- was supposed to be over already, but it must’ve been running late that spring” (Jim 187). This again also shows how he goes into great detail, but not too much, to show what it was like just to get to the island. By giving this amount of detail, the memoir goes from being just static words to a whole movie wrapped up into a