Letters to Rose

My history teacher, Mr. Blas, came into class one day saying he bought an old wooden box full of letters, documents, and pictures. We where all very intrigued by the mysterious wooden box because the letters inside where written during the years of WWII. He later then told us we where to open the letters, transcribe and analyze every single one of them, as well as the documents. This was a long process, however it was all worth it. Reading the letters and the documents helped us piece together who this mysterious person was.We managed to find out that the mysterious person was a male Lieutenant, by the name of Levi Dale Kinsel, who was in listed in the U.S. Navy. He had a wife named Rose Bell Kinsel, he would try and write as much as he could and as often as possible to her in San Diego.

Based off of the letters my team and I came up with a few personality traits he might've had. We think he was a serious man, who was very sweet towards his wife, and he was very optimistic. Levi was a serious man. The reason we say this because in the letters we had to analyze, all he ever talked about was everyday things, and rarely talked about anything other than his work or where he was going to be stationed at for the next couple of days.

We also think he was very loving and sweet towards his wife, Rose. He would always send her money to buy herself something nice for herself or he would tell her how much he misses her around. Also whenever he was stationed at a different place he would try and buy her some gifts like stockings. One example would be the letter he sent to her April 4, of 1939 he wrote " I am sending you a money order for $75. So you can get yourself a nice Easter hat." That to me proves he loved to give his wife gifts.

The last and final trait we thought he had was, optimism. Levi was optimistic about situations. We think this because sometimes when he would write to his wife he didn't receive a letter back from her. Although there would be times he didn't receive letters from her from days on end, he would still write to her every single day hoping that she'd write back as soon as possible. He stayed optimistic about the situation and soon enough his wife did write back.

This project made me realize how lucky we are to have the technology we have now that enables us to communicate with each other faster than letters, no matter where we are in the world. I can say that I have walked away from this project with a lot more knowledge of how things where for people back  in the years of WWII.