The purpose of Ryan Smithson book of " Ghosts of War" is to change the way of how people feel about what it means to be an American. The reason is that as a high school student Ryan Smithson was just a regular high school teenage boy he was going through a makeup and breakup a relationship. But when he was 17 he joined the united states military. Because of the September 11 terrorist attack that happened in New York. He said “ We was in class and we heard the news about how two planes crashed into the world trade center. Then our teacher said something I will never forget. He said “ You guys are living a history”, I never thought of myself as living history before 9/11.” ( Smithson pg 6).
As he Started to grow more in the military he started to realize that life is a lot bigger than just being a high school student. So right after high school, he went to the military and he spent a lot of time practicing a different kind of drills and getting to know others. Then at the age of 19, he was deployed to Iraq. He said their leader or sergeant told them “to pack up and send a letter home to the family.” (Smithson pg 58) The reason they do that is because they don’t know if they are going to come back or not. So he keeps telling us the story of his life in war and how that changed him. He also writes this book “to express himself through the experience as a young GI.” ( Prize) At the end of the book “Smith also talks about how literature let him escape and writing an essay in his community college class, pushed by his teacher, caused him to write his story.” ( Prize)
As he Started to grow more in the military he started to realize that life is a lot bigger than just being a high school student. So right after high school, he went to the military and he spent a lot of time practicing a different kind of drills and getting to know others. Then at the age of 19, he was deployed to Iraq. He said their leader or sergeant told them “to pack up and send a letter home to the family.” (Smithson pg 58) The reason they do that is because they don’t know if they are going to come back or not. So he keeps telling us the story of his life in war and how that changed him. He also writes this book “to express himself through the experience as a young GI.” ( Prize) At the end of the book “Smith also talks about how literature let him escape and writing an essay in his community college class, pushed by his teacher, caused him to write his story.” ( Prize)