TOW #24 - Sully

In his autobiography Sully, Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III writes about his life leading up to the emergency landing of Flight 1549 in 2009. Sully discusses the ways that these events have affected his life. In the beginning pages of his book, Sully introduces that he has always had a lifelong interest in aviation. He pursued his passion and served as a member of the US Air-Force and a professional commercial pilot. As per the dedication page, “Sully” wrote this autobiography for people that were affected by Flight 1549 as a means of remaining connected, In the beginning as well, he also writes that this book serves as a method of finding what really matters, and valuing the most important things to you in your own life.  This message is continued throughout the second half of the book, when the actual climax of the story happens where the plane crashes.

To reveal this very important message and life lesson, Sullenberger is able to include actual pictures pertaining to the specific event, and passionate dictions to include emotional appeal to the readers.  The pictures he includes are of the actual plane in the Hudson River, as well as pictures of the crew members at ceremonies and even of his wife and kids (Sullenberger 228). The inclusion of these pictures helps the reader to connect on an emotional level through displaying what the author finds important, which can make a reader begin to think of people and things that they value as well. Adding to the emotional appeal, Sullenberger utilized passionate diction,  He says “Just as I completely love Lorrie, Kate, and Kelly, I will never shake my love of flying. Never” (Sullenberger 315). Even though Sullenberger was close to death, and was close killing nearly a few dozen passengers, he still holds his passion and love for flying.  That takes a lot of courage and intellectually discipline. This quote is an attempt at showing the readers that you should never give up on the people and aspects of your life that you truly care, value, and love.  Even though you face hardships in life that should never stop you from loving and caring.  This was quite a deep, and underlying lesson for a plane-crash story.  

Although I fully agree with Sullenberger’s message, I didn’t enjoy the book too much,  I felt that it was decently long for a story that didn’t really span out to be 200+ pages.  I was interested in the story at first when it came out in the news, and was very glad to learn more about it. But it was just a little bit too long and a little bit boring.