Letter Writing is a written message conveyed from one person to another through a medium. Letters, particularly love letters, can have a profound effect on people. They make people feel appreciated, valued, and loved. Receiving a love letter can lift someone’s spirits and brighten their day. It can deepen the connection between two people and strengthen their bond. Love letters can serve as a powerful reminder of the love and affection that exists between partners, and they can be a source of comfort and support during difficult times. Overall, letters can positively impact people’s emotions, relationships, and well-being. During the war, couples wrote to each other to encourage each other to continue, in some cases over the war, men would propose to their significant other through letters, and in the present people continue love letters in many different ways. On the other hand, letters can also negatively affect people. Like “Dear John Letters” which is a breakup letter. Love letters started around the 14th century and have continued since then. Writing love letters to people has an emotional impact on them.
During World War 2 the only way couples could contact each other was through letters. There were thousands of letters sent in between couples. A couple that stood out the most was Norma and Harry. Fighting in the Pacific, Harry Kipp attempts to court a young woman in the States named Norma Clinton. The first letter that Harry received from Norma was a picture of herself in it. Harry wrote back “When you said, “If you answer this letter I will send you another,” did you mean another picture or another letter? I hope you meant both for I would enjoy looking at my pin-up girl in two different moods.” Norma was a very smart, attractive girl, and lived in rural Georgia. While Harry was a United States Marine Corps captain from Minnesota. They continued to write letters and started getting to know each other more and more. It wasn’t until the 8th letter that something shocking happened between the two. Harry writes to Norma. “Norma, I want you to be my wife just as soon as I can possibly come for you…. Won’t you tell me frankly, honestly, if you would marry me when I come home, would you find that you could care for me? … Considering everything I’ve already said more than you expected to hear, so “Goodnight”, sweets. Will you answer just as soon as you recover from the shock?” Norma was very surprised to get this in her letter from Harry. Fortunately, Norma responded by saying “My Dearest Harry, Yes, yes, yes, I will marry you! Just as soon as you can come for me. I want more than anything in the world to be your wife, forever! I love you with all my heart!” Harry and Norma finally got to meet when he arrived back in the United States and got married a week later. Surprisingly enough engagements over letters were very common during the war.. An article titled Wartime Marriage: love in a harsh climate written by Giulia Rhodes states that “During the Second World War, there was a sudden increase in the number of weddings. Unsure of what the future held and anxious to formalize their relationships – and perhaps in need of some hope and joy – men and women overcame the obstacles of bombs and rationing with ingenuity on their way to the altar.” I think there is nothing more that affects humans than marriage. A research journal about how marriage affects people states that “Sociologists, psychologists, and epidemiologists have recently documented evidence that married people have better physical health, longevity, psychological health, and reported happiness.” One more example of how love letters can positively impact people is, The World Needs More Love Letters was started in New York City by a young girl named Hannah who had just moved to the city after college. For as long as she could remember her mother had been writing her love letters. Her mother would hide the letters around their house. After college Hannah found herself in a great deal of loneliness. To cope with her mental health she started to write love letters just like her mother, and she would leave them around the city to have people find them. It grew very popular and soon after became a small blog. Hannah writes in her autobiography “I could have never anticipated how that question would change my life. Overnight, my inbox filled with dozens of stories from all over the world.” Over the last 12 years since she started writing the letters, it has turned into a worldwide website that allows strangers to send love letters to other strangers who are in need of a letter. The letters these people receive help them find some encouragement during a hard time.
Not only do love letters have an impact on people, but also letters of gratitude and appreciation. These letters are used more commonly today than love letters. A research paper titled Letters of Gratitude as a Method for Improving Family Relationship Quality. The study showed that letters of gratitude are used as a method for improving family relationships. The hypothesis of the research paper was “Writers, compared to non-writers, will perceive increased family emotional involvement over time.” The study included two groups of respondents including a control group (non-letter writers). All of the groups completed multiple sets of questionnaires that took about 20 minutes to complete. Then the writing group had to write a letter to anyone in the world that they appreciated. The results were that “53% of the people wrote to immediate family, the other 47% were letters written to people outside of the immediate family. Their letters went to friends, significant others, roommates, uncles/aunts, celebrities, future self, God, and deceased pets. This shows that when writing a letter of gratitude it also has an impact on the writer. The writer chooses to write about that person for their own reason. Another research paper that uses the technique of Therapeutic Letter Writing. These letters were written from School Counselors to Students, Parents, and Teachers. This article discusses how therapeutic letter writing is effective in direct services to students. It states that “Therapeutic Letter Writing specifically has shown to have positive effects. The article states that “Therapeutic letter writing–that is, letters written by counselors to clients as a part of the counseling experience.” This is a great way of showing how someone you don’t know very well can have a big impact on you and help you form a closer bond with yourself and your family.
On the other hand, Letters can also bring negative effects to people. During World War 2, many soldiers received a “Dear John Letter”. In the book Behind the Lines, it states“Although the term originated in World War II, “Dear John” letters date back for centuries. (And with the advancement of electronic communication, troops can now receive “Dear John” e-mails.) Usually, the message is from a girlfriend, fiancée, or, in the worst case, a wife who has fallen for someone else. As much as servicemen joke about the letters or try to make light of them, the effect of receiving one of these rejections in the mail can be devastating. “On the fifteenth of this month a German man in the 52nd Regt. P V committed suicide by shooting himself through the head,” Civil War soldier Ephraim Shruy wrote to his sister in March 1864. The cause of it was he got a letter that his wife got married and that troubled him so much.” When learning about this in class, it was really sad that the soldiers received letters like this. I couldn’t imagine what they were going through. They were already so far from home and then to get a letter like this must have broken them. Unfortunately, “Dear John Letters” didn’t happen to only a few men, It was a very common thing to happen. The majority of “Dear John Letters” that soldiers received were saying that their significant other had found someone else and that they were sorry. It got so common that men used to take all the letters that their significant others wrote and threw them into the fire. Some soldiers took the information very hard and others thought it was quite funny. Many of the men wrote back either with a harsh tone or they wrote a very sarcastic letter back. Overall, “Dear John Letters” had an impact on their lives.
Letter writing has become not as popular in the later years, but still holds the same impact. Whether it be a birthday card from a loved one, a love letter during World War 2, a letter from a stranger to lift your spirits, a marriage letter, or even a breakup letter. No matter what letter it is, they all have an impact on people.
