Where Men Win Glory: Pat Tillman
by Jon Krakauer
Character Analysis
Theme
The theme of Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer is integrity. Pat Tillman showed so much integrity by going from the glories of being a professional athlete and making millions of dollars to a military soldier fighting for his country over the terrible terroist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon which still effects us to this very day.
Setting
The setting of Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer is in three different places through out the book. At first it is in his home town in califonia, he had troubles there when he was senior when he got into a fight and beat up a kid really bad and had to go to jail right before he went to Arizona St. to play football where he spent four years playing. Ironically, right after college he was drafted into the NFL to the Arizona Cardinals. Which was good because he could settle in an area he was very familiar with. After a couple years in the NFL he decided he was going to enlist in the Army. He lived in Afghanistan for two years before being shot by friendly fire which sadly killed him.
Critique
The biggest problem with Where Men Win Glory is that nearly all the drama and import of Tillman’s death and the cover-up are saved for the last hundred pages. The first two-thirds covers Tillman’s early life, his ascent into the NFL and his decision to quit and enlist. Tillman doesn’t arrive in Afghanistan until Page 230. Not that this was a bad book it was too drawn out and had you asking questions like "what does this have to do with Pat Tillman" and "When is it going to talk about when he made the decision to go to the army". I asked these questions during my reading and was very on sure about when it was going to happen, and as i just said before it doesnt happen until page 230 which is a long way into the book by that point. Otherwise it was a very interesting book and showed me that even if you are living a good life you can make other risky decisions that can either help you or hurt you. Pat Tillman was an incredible guy and I enjoyed reading about who he was.