Howard Zinn Speech Analysis

Furthermore, Howard Zinn talks about the humanizing of oppressors. Initially, he brings up Christopher Columbus, a historical figure that is glossed over as someone that discovered America rather than a colonist that killed people for gold. He then talks about how Andrew Jackson’s expel of the Native Americans forced them into deadly and poor land, while many died in the movement from place to place. The FBI is often heroes in movie when in reality, they were watching people get beaten and murdered at their most desperate time of need. Zinn highlights the lies told by Hollywood’s films. Finally, Howard Zinn closes his speech saying that he knows there are truth-telling films out there. But that he wants more films like he talks about, films

An example is when he mentions the Mexican War, “The army marches through the streets of Santa Fe, and all the townspeople go into their houses and close the shutters. The army is met by total silence, an expression of how the population feels about this great American history” (12). Zinn is able to mix together the opposing viewpoint of the people of Santa Fe and the villainy of the US army to show that it was never as black and white as most initially thought. He also talks about how the total silence could be used in a film for an artistic standpoint of defeat or distrust that has grown in the US army. Another use of his excellent examples is his use of pathos. On his topic of protests, he mentions the child laborers that protested in New York, “They stood there outside the resort with signs that said, WE WANT TIME TO PLAY. Has there ever been a film made about that?”(27). Zinn asks the question “Has there ever been a film made about that?” as an indicator to the audience that these stories have never been told. He uses pathos as he wants the audience to understand that these movies should be made as a way to tell these people’s stories. He wants them to know that their struggles should be told to others as a way to avoid mistakes like it in the future. His examples come through from Zinn’s bravery of