John Winston Lennon Imagine Analysis

John Winston Ono Lennon was born October 9th 1940 in Liverpool, England. His early childhood years were affected by the Second World War. He grew up to be a rebellious teenager, described as being a bad influence, eventually being expelled from college. Being post-war, impacts left over from the devastation had made Lennon feel the terrible effects of a divided humanity. His music has been influenced by his life, starting childhood, and the struggles he faced living in a society with which he had such contradicting thoughts. Imagine (1971), said to be Lennon’s best work, calls for people to live in equality and in peace. The song was inspired by his wife Yoko Ono’s poem Cloud Piece from her book Grapefruit (1964), along with a religious prayer book given to Lennon by Dick Gregory, a civil rights activist. Lennon’s songs convey some ideas of different international politics’ school of thought, which were affected by his upbringing and the social and political movement in the 1960s and 1970s. From his lyrics in various songs, Lennon’s message can be a reference to liberalism, realism, Marxism and constructivism. Core theories of liberalism mention freedom of individuals, cooperation of individuals and the slightly capitalistic view of private property and

In his song Imagine, he sings “Imagine no possessions” and “No need for greed or hunger” which can be viewed as Marxism as it opposes capitalism. It can be argued that this may make him a communist. In the song Revolution (1968), the lines “But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, You ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow” is an indication that he opposes Communism, which is the opposite of capitalism. However he cannot be a Marxist since that would mean people who work hard would earn or own a large percentage of wealth, again contradicting Lennon’s wish of equality, and “No need for greed and hunger” as those who do not have enough money would not be able to