My last blog referenced the word cloud and word analysis of a block of letters written by Paul Jones, that had been included in a published volume by his father during the First World War. Paul Jones had been a Lieutenant in the British Army and well-educated, but died on the battlefield.
This particular blog post deals with a small collection of letters written by Chester Cole, a young man from Berlin, Massachusetts that I managed to rescue from the Ebay market. While not as numerous as the letters of Paul Jones, there are 33 letters that I transcribed into readable text form for the Voyant-tools word analysis program. The following word cloud was the outcome of the Cole letters
This particular blog post deals with a small collection of letters written by Chester Cole, a young man from Berlin, Massachusetts that I managed to rescue from the Ebay market. While not as numerous as the letters of Paul Jones, there are 33 letters that I transcribed into readable text form for the Voyant-tools word analysis program. The following word cloud was the outcome of the Cole letters
Compared to the Paul Jones word cloud, Chester Cole's letters appear to have nothing much to say about war. The word 'company' appears because this was part of his signature line sometimes, along with his name, which is why 'Chester' shows up as one of the more frequent words too. This is also true for the date 1918. Chester dated his letters as was customary during the time. It is interesting to note the word 'to-day' as a frequent word. Chester did not use the correct spelling of 'today' but instead used 'to-day.' This could be a product of his rural schooling or maybe something he learned from other family members. Germany appears smaller than most, so it may be posit that going overseas was not a prominent thought at this particular time during his training time in New York and Florida.
Another comparison that could be noteworthy is the observation of the frequency of the word 'War' in the Paul Jones' letters. Chester Cole's most frequent word was 'home.' Could this difference stem from the fact that Jones enlisted earlier in the First World War (1916)? In Europe 'war' was prevalent in every aspect of life, yet, here in America, we remained an isolated country, intent on non-involvement. When we did finally become involved, many men drafted into the American Expeditionary Force did not want to fight. Leaving home was a burden. 'War' was not a word commonly spoken of in Chester's letters.
Another comparison that could be noteworthy is the observation of the frequency of the word 'War' in the Paul Jones' letters. Chester Cole's most frequent word was 'home.' Could this difference stem from the fact that Jones enlisted earlier in the First World War (1916)? In Europe 'war' was prevalent in every aspect of life, yet, here in America, we remained an isolated country, intent on non-involvement. When we did finally become involved, many men drafted into the American Expeditionary Force did not want to fight. Leaving home was a burden. 'War' was not a word commonly spoken of in Chester's letters.
The above graphs show the raw frequencies of both the word 'war' and 'home,' in each particular letter that Chester Cole wrote. I think that had I not lumped the Paul Jones letters in three groupings, a better analysis could have been performed with the raw frequencies in his letters too. Another challenge to this project is that additional data sets need to be added to the general outcome. One sample of published letters versus a sample of unpublished letters does not generate a whole picture. Plus, one fellow is from Britain, the other from America. Jones was well-educated and Cole was not. I have selected my next samples and will try to create a consistent graph pattern but taking the published letters and creating individual files of each letter. In this capacity, the raw frequencies of the both the words 'war' and 'home' can be noted in each letter.