Grant and Lee: A Study in ContrastBruce
Catton
Summary / Question Answers
Both Ulysses S.
Grant and Robert E. Lee were men of integrity, determination, passion and great
skill. Bruce Catton wrote about the two men in the essay, "Grant and Lee:
A Study in Contrasts". Catton, a Pulitzer Prize winning author and Civil
War Historian, provides a brief character analysis of both men in this essay.
The beliefs that Grant embraced as a frontiersman was more admirable than those
aristocratic beliefs of Lee, and more men and women of today should understand
and follow Grant's principles.
Social
inequality was one of the fundamental differences between the two men. Lee was
an aristocrat who believed in traditional chivalry. He believed that this
social class of privileged aristocrats is where leaders should be chosen.
Catton, Lee firmly believed that social inequality has its own advantages and
dividing the society into leisure class and common class is necessary.
Grant was a
Westerner who supported modern ways of life, while Lee was a Virginia
aristocrat who represented traditional American life. Catton points out many
distinct contrasts between these two generals. For example, their backgrounds
and personalities were complete opposites of each other. Despite their many
differences, there were similarities between Grant and Lee. Catton makes it
clear that both these men were strong and were highly supportive of their
beliefs.
In short,
General, Ulysses S. Grant, had aspirations for America that were the polar
opposite of Lee's. General Grant was a man who came up the hard way in the
rugged Western frontier. He was not born into privilege. He fought hard for the
country's growth and expansion, and felt it was important to uphold a
democratic society. Grant looked toward the future and paid no mind to the
past.
*********************************************************************
*********************************************************************
Question Answers of Grant and Lee: A study in Contrast
A. Comprehensive:
Q.1. What took place
at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865? Why did the meeting at Appomattox
signal the closing of "a great chapter in American life"?
ANSWER : General Grant
and General Lee met to discuss the terms of the surrender of General Lee's
army. It was a great chapter in American life because the civil war ended.
Q.2. How does Robert
Lee represent aristocracy? How does Ulysses S. Grant represent Lee's opposite?
ANSWER : Lee was born
into the Virginia aristocracy and was apart of society. Grant was born in the
west so he had to work to survive.
Q.3. According to
Catton, where is it that "the contrast between Grant and Lee becomes most
striking" (10)?
ANSWER : Grant was
the modern man emerging and Lee might have ridden down from the old age of
chivalry.
Q.4. What
similarities does Catton see between the two men?
ANSWER : Each man
begins with the utter tenacity and fidelity and also both men were daring and
resourcefulness
Q.5. Why, according
to Catton, are "succeeding generations of Americans" indebt to Grant
and Lee?
ANSWER : Because
no part of either man's life became him more than the part he played in his
brief meeting in the McLean house of Appomattox.
B. Purpose and Audience :
1. Catton's purpose
in contrasting Grant and Lee is to make a statement about the differences
between two currents in American history. Summarize these differences. Do you
think the differences still exist today ?explain.
ANSWER : Lee was
family oriented and Grant not. Lee was born in Virginia and Grant was born in
the west. Lee was rich and Grant wasn't. I think that these two differences
exists today because there are people that don't have to work to have a good
life and others need to work to buy essential things.
Q.2. Is Catton's
purpose in comparing Grant and Lee the same as his purpose in contrasting them?
That is, do their similarities also make a statement about U.S. history?
Explain.
ANSWER : Catton
wanted to show how similar two generals that are enemies and how different they
were. Their similarities made a statement in US history because those two
generals fought for what they believe and they don't give up but the good
general had to win the war.
Q.3. State the
essay's thesis in your own words.
ANSWER : A great chapter
in America came to an end and a new chapter started when Lee and Grant met at
Appomattox so that Lee surrender to end the war.
C. Style and Structure :
Q.1. Does Catton use
subject-by-subject or point comparison? Why do you think he chooses the
strategy he does?
ANSWER : Catton uses
point comparison and he chose this strategy to let us know how similar and how
different they were. In the essay, topic sentences are extremely helpful to the
reader.
Q.2. Explain the
functions of the following sentences: "Grant... was everything Lee was
not"; "so Grant and Lee were in complete contrast". "Yet it
was not all contrast, after all"; and "Lastly, and perhaps greatest
of all...".
ANSWER : The
function of all this topic sentence is to inform the reader that the paragraph
is going to be about comparing Lee and Grant.