Analysis Of The Prologue Of The Book By John Hinckley Jr.

In the prologue of the book it starts with an image of Ronald Reagan on his deathbed pressed close to his desperate wife. It’s a good picture to see what leads Regan to end up being in that position. In the first chapter the reader is introduced to John Hinckley Jr. He seems like a pretty typical twenty five year old man who has a strange obsession with an actress (Dugard and O’Reilly 13). This is only the future, right now, Reagan is having the time of his life, and doesn’t even have a clue that he will go into politics. In 1937 Reagan signed his first contract and became a Hollywood actor (Dugard and O’Reilly 19). His acting career is a success because he is a handsome young man and very talented. By the end of his career, he had acted in 53 films. Through his acting career he meets Jane Wyman and marries her. The hardest part of their relationship was when his wife gave birth to their child too early and the baby did not make it (Dugard and O’Re illy 27). They had two other children together but they sent them away to a boarding school. This causes their relationship to be rocky and in May 1948 Jane divorces Reagan (Dugard and O’Reilly 29). Regan does not react well to this and as an outcome he enters a life of sleeping around and spending all his money on expensive restaurants and bars (Dugard and O’Reilly 34). On February 21st Reagan married Nancy and with her he had two children as well (Dugard and O’Reilly 49). Like Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan had a wife that was