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The Relevance Of Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton

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Hamilton’s relevance is rooted in its ability to educate. Lin Manuel Miranda did not create a musical “inspired by” the life of one of America’s founding fathers, but rather created a musical that takes the facts of the life of one of the founding fathers and presents it in a new medium. By following the actual events of Alexander Hamilton’s adult life, Hamilton gives the audience the opportunity to experience a defining point in our country’s history in a way that crosses generational and educational barriers. Up until this point, educating yourself on the lives of the founding fathers would require reading historical accounts of their lives, like Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton, or watching a documentary. While valid forms of obtaining information, historical nonfiction and documentaries appeal to a particular portion of the population, and are inaccessible to members of …show more content…

In “My Shot,” the intensity with which Hamilton fights for his chance is evident both in how Miranda sings it and in the lyrics. Lyrics like “I’m just like my country / I’m young, scrappy and hungry” and “I’m a diamond in the rough, a shiny piece of coal / Tryin’ to reach my goal” convey a sense of urgency and dedication to “making it” in America, a mentality that immigrants today can identify with. Presenting a founding father primarily through his immigrant identity encourages audiences to question their own thoughts and perceptions of immigration while also giving modern American immigrants a presence on stage in the musical theater world. With immigration a critical issue during this election season, Hamilton brings together the current political world with that of America’s past, highlighting modern issues without becoming a political statement for or against any current American political

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An American Musical and 1776 are both critically acclaimed musicals; however, despite covering the same historical period, they do so with differences. To begin, Hamilton and 1776 each contain a handful of historical inaccuracies to either further the plot or to make writing more convenient for the playwright. The main point where Hamilton strays from history is that every lead character in the show is played by a person of color, whereas, historically all of the people portrayed were white. Also, Angelica Schuyler, Alexander Hamilton’s sister-in-law with whom he had an emotional affair with, was already married when the two met. In the show, Angelica gets married after her sister, Eliza Schuyler, and Hamilton are already married.

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His father had skipped town soon after he was born, his mother died when he was young, and he had few other family members to fall back on. To make up for these lackluster credentials, he decided to work himself at a constant pace. While he is most well-known for his authorship of fifty-two of the eighty-five essays comprising the Federalist Papers, he didn’t stop there. In fact, Hamilton would argue with anyone he didn’t

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Alexander Hamilton (2004) is a detailed true story of one of the most important figures in American history. It is based on Hamilton’s early life. As a politician, as a revolutionary war hero, and the first treasury secretary, Hamilton dedicated his life and intellect to unifying and strengthening the United States. Hamilton in truth did perhaps more than any other one person to secure the power of the American Union. Though he was never president, he was a hero deemed as a true founding father, title he kept till his death.

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He was able to combine an idea and politics. Hamilton is the reason the two are so closely tied together, and in doing this, he is known as the man who made modern America. He also envisioned America to have large debts, military force, and a modern economy with the large government. This is why Hamilton is probably the only who would understand America today. These are just some of the examples that Wood gives throughout the book that entail the difference in the Founders and todays

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Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of Treasury of the United States, had a lot going for himself being a man that came from poverty to success, and he was a man “all powerful and fails at nothing which he attempts” admitted a congressman in 1791 (Tindall and Shi). Born in the Caribbean in the West Indies, abandoned by his father and orphaned at the age of 13 by his late mother who had died. Later moved to New York, became a lawyer and transitioned to nationalism thus giving him the important role of handling the weight of the debt America had accumulated $54 million deep after the Revolutionary War (Digital History). Hamilton saw the need for some financial credit to be given to America and he had the right idea by proposing a National Bank to his first president George Washington. Word dispersed of that proposal leading a

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1380 Words | 6 Pages

11 James, Kendra. " Race, Immigration, and Hamilton: The Relevance of Lin-Manuel Miranda's New Musical - The Toast." The Toast.

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During the process of achieving the goal, he attended the Constitutional Convention. Here, Hamilton spoke out on behalf of his ideas and beliefs. Among many important people at the convention, Hamilton was later named the “Father of the Constitutional Convention”. Standing for New York, Hamilton thought that

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While a literary device, tragic heroes also appear in real life. A perfect example of a real life tragic hero is Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury. This modern tragic hero started life as an orphan in poverty, living in the Caribbean, but his elevated character of exceptional literary skills, wit and progressive political ideas eventually landed him a spot as one of the most influential people in the United States. Alexander Hamilton had a positive hamartia, as he refused to remain quiet about the injustices of his country, oblivious to the danger it created for him and his family. The downfall of Hamilton occurred gradually.

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Ordinary People In the award winning film, Ordinary People, the Jarrett family has just suffered the loss of their eldest son, Buck. The family lacks the ability to express the grief in their loss. A conflict management technique that could have helped the Jarrett family be more open about their emotions is to create safety. Conrad turns to violence and silence when safety is not established.

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Fed Up is a documentary made in 2014 that is based on the issues caused by the American food industry. Fed Up, uncovers America’s true secrets about the food people consume every day. More specifically, it reveals the affect sugar has on people’s bodies. As a result, the amount of sugar in food, the bodies consent of glucose, and the satisfying taste it brings, too much sugar could cause certain sicknesses causing the body to not work the way it supposed to. To start off, the amount of sugar put in America’s food is predominately high.

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After becoming successful, Miranda with the cast performs “Alexander” along with “ My Shot” to President Obama on March 2016. Through the cast’s recorded performance one can see the overall theme of ambition that Alexander Hamilton had. The theme of “My Shot” and “Alexander” is ambition. “My Shot” is about Alexander Hamilton speaking

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Lin-Manuel Miranda Lin-Manuel Miranda revolutionized American culture, but specifically theater, music, and entertainment. Lin-Manuel was born January 16th, 1980 in Manhattan, New York. In the 1980’s, musicals and theater were very popular, but the idea of hip-hop music in them was not even thought about. However, Lin-Manuel Miranda changed that dramatically, and as a result, we have some very great works like Hamilton, and In The Heights that Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote. Some of the reasons Lin-Manuel Miranda revolutionized American Culture are because he was very brave, because he revolutionized the way Americans thought about American history with one of his most famous works Hamilton, and because he brought people closer together by combining

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Our Founding Fathers were merely men, but they utilized their strengths and conquered their weaknesses to propel themselves into godlike statuses that molded each and every one of them into prominent historical figures. Katori Hall explained this perfectly when she said “We expect our leaders to be godlike. But I feel that when people try to sanctify leadership it puts it out of the realm of regular people. And that’s where the greatest leaders come from – from the people.” Our Founding Fathers harnessed their personal strengths and weaknesses, but this alone wasn’t enough to help them to succeed.

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V for Vendetta, directed by Alan Moore in 2005 was an eye opening film, with aspects from the past and predictions for the future, the film left many uncertain how to feel. Being placed in the dystopian genre, the film uses many codes and conventions to connect them to the genre. V 's revolutionary speech helps bring hope to the society. The film was born through an illness and plague that had effected the world. The storyline begins to unfold with the rising of High Chancellor Sutler, which was oddly similar to Hitler, who created a government to oppress the people’s liberty.

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The Irony of “Born in the U.S.A.” As the fireworks explode in the night sky to celebrate Independence Day, “Born in the U.S.A.” by Bruce Springsteen plays loudly for the audience to hear. As the men, women, and children bellow out the chorus proudly, they never seem to grasp its intended meaning. By studying the appeals and irony used in Springsteen’s lyrics, it is easy to see how Springsteen’s message of the poor treatment of Vietnam War veterans is misconstrued by millions of listeners into American pride. Springsteen’s intended audience is a group made up of mainly white, blue collar Americans-

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