Thursday, October 16, 2014

Levi Kinsel - Personality Profile

Personality Profile - Levi Kinsel
        For my Honors US History class, we were tasked with creating a personality profile for Levi Kinsel,  a sailor in the U.S Navy during 1938-1945. During the course of the war, he constantly sent letters to his significant other, Rose Kinsel, who lived in San Diego at the time. We transcribed them, and we were to assign traits to him based on the content of the letters.
        The first trait we attributed to Levi was that he was incredibly observant. Whatever happened the days preceding him writing the letter, he includes it. In my opinion, he never failed to write anything without a lot of detail. Even on the most mundane subjects, there’s still a lot to write about for him. An example of his observations was when he got a letter from Rose dated 3/20/39. “I received your letter yesterday must have been bad weather there or something it was written the 17 mailed on the 15 and i got it the 18th.”
        The second trait we attributed to Levi was that he was very considerate. Every paycheck was sent back to Rose. He also would ask how she was doing, as if he was there. In ending a letter, he would always write at least a single heartfelt sentence to say goodbye. For example “I guess this is bye bye lots of love” and “I hope you are ok take good care of yourself for me.” In a lot of letters, he asks for a picture of her. 
        The last trait we attributed to Levi was that he was realistic. He never romanticized the war. He wrote every problem that he had, whether it be about his living conditions, or just how he feels in general. He wrote about how much he drank, or how much sleep he’s gotten, or how much weight he lost. In a letter dated 1/28/41, he says “Well I feel if you don’t hurry and get here I might have to go and get a few drinks but that wouldn’t do much good, will have to stop as i feel a shit coming.” 
        In conclusion, our group had to create a personality profile for U.S. Sailor Levi Kinsel. He served during WWII, specifically from 1938 to 1945. The way we created a profile, was by transcribing letters sent to his significant other, Rose Kinsel. By doing this, we got to look at the relationship these two people had and how they both felt about the current situation.

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