Compare and Contrast of Two Books About The Civil War
After people read “The Last Brother,” by Trinka Hakes Noble and “The Civil War,” by
Catherine Clinton, they realize there are many points to compare and contrast. Both books are
about the Civil War and are written in third person; however, one of the books is non-fiction, and
the other fiction. There are many differences in the books from the style in which they are
written, the types of pictures used, and amount and types of information provided. While both
books share a similar setting, the writing is very different, yet the reader is able to get a good
visualization of what it was like during Civil War time.
The book, “The Last Brother,” is written in realistic fiction. Although it is not a true story,
it gives the reader a sense of what it might have been like living during the Civil War. The
pictures in this book have little detail, but are colorful and take up a lot of space. Although the
setting is the Civil War, the book gives little information about the war specifically. At the start of
the book the author explained how the Union traveled to many different towns and asked people
to fight for slavery to be abolished. In the book, the older brothers of Gabe and Davy were two
of the many who volunteered. The reason Gabe and Davy ended up going to war was because
their older brothers had gone to war before them. During the war, Gabe did something that was
very risky. He became friends with a kid on the other team. Befriending the Confederate bugler
helped Davy end the war. This book is a made-up story for the reader’s enjoyment only.
The second book, “The Civil War,” written by Catherine Clinton, is a nonfiction book that
is overflowing with facts about the Civil War. This book is also written with a third person point
of view. Instead of having color pictures, “The Civil War” contains a number of black and white
pictures, most likely because that is what was available in the 1800’s. Every page of Clinton’s
book contains a timeline and underneath each timeline is information explaining the events that
occurred during that time frame. This book also provides important names, dates, Did You
Knows, captions, and key places such as Gettysburg and Washington D.C. Surprisingly, “The
Civil War” doesn't even describe in detail the war until you are 24 pages into the book. The
timeline starts in the 1700’s and highlights special events that happened leading up to the war
such as the election of President Abraham Lincoln. The conclusion of the book talks about how
the North and South ended the war and a few events that occurred after the war. This book is
strictly factual in nature and provides the reader an education about the United State’s history.
The writing styles of books “The Last Brother” and “The Civil War” have very little in
common given the fact that one is fiction and the other non-fiction. The main similarity between
the two books is that they share the same setting, the Civil War. “The Last Brother” accurately
depicts in words what “The Civil War” depicts in pictures. They both accurately sketch a vision
in your mind of what the Civil War looked like, with large brown horses with USA-branded on
their hind quarters, and the Royal blue and white uniforms for the Union. Ironically, despite the
fact that one book is fiction and one is nonfiction, both books describe two brothers running
away to fight in the war, and that one of the brothers is a bugler. Despite the fact that both
books are about the Civil War, they differ in more ways than they are similar.
There are a variety of differences in the way Noble’s and Clinton’s books are written.
Noble’s book is written in an informal way, and is very easy to read while Clinton’s is very
straightforward and provides the reader a lot of factual information about the Civil War. Another
way these two books are different is the pictures. In “The Last Brother,” the pictures take up the
whole page and are very colorful. While reading the story, the reader can visualize certain
points in the story, such as when the bugler is sitting down with his brother and the General’s
horse. The illustrations in this book enhance the reader’s experience by providing a visual to go
along with the story. In “The Civil War,” the detailed pictures are medium-sized and black and
white. The pictures are actual photographs from the Civil War and provoke thought from the
reader. For example, there is a picture of an African American soldier with a gun in his hand,
which causes the reader to think about the African Americans in the North who were seeking
freedom. Another key difference between the two books are the amount of words on a page.
“The Civil War” uses the whole page almost overloading it with facts and information and “The
Last Brother” just uses the middle of the page with limited factual information. It is a made up
story for the reader to enjoy, where “The Civil War’ is a non-fiction book intended to educate the
reader.
All in all, “The Last Brother” and “The Civil War” are two different books with concepts to
compare and contrast. There are few similarities, such as the setting and the consistency
between the two books in terms of how they portray Civil War times. Mostly, these books differ,
not only regarding the style in which they are written, but the effect each has on the reader.
Noble’s book is intended as a casual read for the purposes of entertainment, while Clinton’s
book is intended to inform the reader. Although these books are night-and-day different, they
both provide the reader with a quality reading experience about Civil War times.