A Letter Home And Waiting For Dan Comparison

After reading both of these short passages I have pulled out many similarities and differences between them. In these two novels “A Letter Home” and “Waiting For Dan, ” they are well written and really both have one big idea about the whole entire story. Firstly, the main thing these two have in common are that there is someone writing a letter to the people at home. In “A Letter Home” a girl in college Kara is writing to her parents about protests in her school. On the other hand, Dan from “Waiting For Dan” is writing to his wife and kids from a prison in Mississippi because he got arrested for standing up for equal rights. Although, these stories are two different time periods the overall message from both of them is the main character's
First off, the time period is different for each story. In “A letter Home” Kara is protesting in the 1970’s. Kara’s college was protesting the government sending troops into to the Vietnam war. The were all really determined to catch someone’s attention and they finally did but it lead to 4 people getting killed and 9 students wounded. On the other behalf, Dan in the novel “Waiting For Dan” was protesting during the time period of the civil right movement. He personally wanted equal right all across the nation and for no one to be left out because of their race. He wound up joining something called the freedom ride which is a protest where you demand equal rights. However, it was not as violent as the protesting going in with Kara. Dan eventually got arrested for this and got put in the Mississippi jail. Although, these two characters are leaving huge things behind they want to make everything right so the things they left behind like family can be more safer in the future. Secondly, another main difference between these novels was that Dan had more of a bigger impact on Kara when protesting. Kara really could not do much because of the violence and she was always worried of what could have happened if she stepped in. Kara saw both sides of it and was really neutral. However, she wanted to put an end to both of them without harming or causing any damage to stores, people, houses etc. Dan had a bigger impact because he was one in four hundred entering the freedom ride. He was determined and had his mind set on standing up for what was right. He went out seeking justice for the people who have to sleep with one eye open because of the racism. He had more of a purpose than Kara had. He tried his hardest to put an end to it and wounded up in jail. Although the outcome did not come out as expected he definitely put some thought into everyone who is against different races and colors.