The references and inclusions of the Mardi Gras celebration, political events, and eyewitness accounts and stories from citizens of New Orleans curates an emotional response within the audience - whether it be the imagery of starving men, women, and children - or the irony of the government’s statement of preparedness. These emotions and feelings of desolation and resentment help empower and unite Spike’s views of our country’s failure and dishonesty towards it’s own proactivity.
Joseph Pitt: The Silent Progression What is progress? How do we measure progress? Who has the answers for these questions? Tony Kushner’s Angels in America helps give the reader insight on these questions. Through the use of characters that he creates in his play, Kushner is able to help kindle the curiosity in the reader and helps generate thinking.
By bring the United States to life and comparing her to a mother, Cary awakens some deep part of her American audience that desired to stay with and protect their homeland from the plague that is slavery. Once the previously apathetic African Americans reawaken to the abolitionist cause, Cary will be able to gather additional support for her dream of an African American newspaper. Since these abolitionists reside in Canada, they cannot directly fight to free America. Instead, they must accomplish what they can through words, and the strongest and easiest course to accomplish this goal would be through the retention and expansion of the
‘For all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream…’ is an example of where Obama creates a very metaphorical visual, giving the subjects of success the qualities of a struggling animal, desperately doing all it knows from instinct to attain its dream. The image is gritty, and appropriately so, in order to represent the aforementioned struggles of previously oppressed and presently depressed black individuals. He describes the uncertain present and future of these people, lamenting for the young african Americans who are seen ‘standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons’, and thus are much ‘without hope for the future’. Such imagery of misfortune and desperation call for empathy, presenting a reality that many are ignorant of and may be shellshocked by. The description of ‘street corners’ awakens the minds of americans who would see people moping around in the street and would feel only disdain.
In the 1980s, during the apogee of the AIDS crisis, many conservatives came forward to blame the homosexual community for the epidemic. For instance, according to Armstrong, Lam, and Chase, Kaposi’s sarcomas, along with other diseases, make up a list of conditions that serves as a guideline for the diagnosis of AIDS. In fact, its relation to AIDS is so remarkable that it became a label; in a society that is divided by pre-conceived ideas of morality, it became a visual representation of HIV as a punishment for homosexuality. However, in Angels in America: a Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Tony Kushner attributes a greater meaning to the lesions caused by Kaposi’s sarcoma – from death sentence to change, and finally, to redemption. These lesions symbolize the lethality that comes with AIDS, and how it has shaped the sense of community amongst homosexuals.
Hamilton and the Performance of America Since its premiere three years ago, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit Broadway play Hamilton: An American Musical has become widely regarded as a cultural phenomenon. From the first questions it poses in the opening lyrics of “How does a bastard, orphan… grow up to be a hero and a scholar?” to the final notes of “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story”, it addresses the history involved in the musical’s inception from a uniquely analytical and nuanced perspective. As a performance, it can be argued that Hamilton transforms a historic tale of conquest into a modern one.
As a result, some may feel that they have no presence in America because their expected help is nowhere to be found, once again shown by the prevalence of hardships. However, since these types of entities do exist and show their faces in the play, as seen by the Angel and ghosts, the statement is also
In the 1980s, during the apogee of the AIDS crisis, many conservatives came forward to blame homosexuals for the epidemic. For instance, according to Armstrong, Lam, and Chase, Kaposi’s sarcomas, alongside other diseases, composes a list of conditions that serves as a criterion for the diagnosis of AIDS. In fact, its relation to AIDS is so remarkable that it became a label; in a society that is divided by pre-conceived ideas of morality, it became a visual representation of HIV as punishment for homosexuality. However, in Angels in America: a Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Tony Kushner attributes a deeper meaning to the lesions caused by Kaposi’s sarcomas – from death sentence to change, and finally, to redemption. Through these lesions, the author symbolizes the paradox of AIDS in an American society that refuses to embrace minorities, and how its destructiveness has fortified the sense of community amongst homosexuals.
Literary Analysis: Exploring American Identity Introduction This essay compares “In response to executive order 9066” (poem) by Dwight Okita to “Mericans” (short story) by Sandra Cisneros. Specifically, the essay explores the central theme of American identity in the two literary works. The “Mericans” is about a little girl who has a story about the new world and the old world. In this case, the new world is America.
In the process of working toward the American Dream, people struggle to fit in, to belong, to be accepted. For many of them, an important part of the American Dream is the chance to reinvent themselves—the opportunity to become someone different, someone better. In “Outlaw: My Life in America as an Undocumented Immigrant”, Jose Antonio Vargas is an “undocumented immigrant” who has been living illegally in the U.S. since he was twelve years old. To chase his American dreams, he embodied a lie until it became unbearable and he expose his truth and let the masks crumble onto the ground. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Martin Luther King Jr. broke unjust laws and engaged in nonviolence direct action in order to pursue his American dream of equality and freedom.
In her article, “From Howells and the popular story Paradigm: Reading Ailas Lapham’s Proairetic Code” The “Alger Hero” speaks for the American dream, the belief that anyone can be successful in America no matter your background, culture, or upbringing. “The Alger hero represents a triumphant combination- and reduction to the lowest common denominator- of the most widely accepted concepts in nineteenth century American Society. The belief that the potential greatness of the common man, the glorification of individual effort and accomplishment, the equation of the pursuit of money with the pursuit of happiness and of business success with spiritual grace” (Murphy 430). Silas Lapham shares some similarities and differences with the “Alger Hero.” Like the Alger hero, Lapham shows dedication, ambition, and courage to achieve his dreams.
The Bernie Sanders campaign’s “America” ad, featuring a homonymous Simon and Garfunkel song, is undoubtedly a positive ad, filled with warmth, hope and enthusiasm. The minute-long advertisement switches focus from the candidate to the voters, or the American people. Using classic American images, a familiar folk-style soundtrack and footage of children and family, “America” appeals to optimism and quaint patriotism, especially those of Iowans who are the primary target of the ad. The ad opens with the shot of a snowy day, with wind turbines in the background. The image brings viewers Iowa to relate whatever else happens in the rest of the ad, since Iowa is one of the “top states for installed wind capacity.”
In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, the use of an analogy, diction, and irony contribute to the anti-war portrait of Billy Pilgrim by illuminating that society’s futile and cataclysmic war efforts cause more damage than results, making war utterly useless in the grand scheme of life. One occurrence of the anti-war message Vonnegut creates in his novel is expressed when Vonnegut writes, regarding Billy Pilgrim, “He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next.” (23). This analogy to a stage play continues throughout the novel and has a strong anti-war message within it. Vonnegut constantly ties plays to Billy to demonstrate that war is romanticized
His usages of logical, ethical, and emotional appeal combined with the ironic chorus simply are not heard due to one great constraint. Springsteen’s audience is made up of mainly white Americans, a group that very rarely criticizes America. Criticizing America is very rare in this audience’s culture because they love America. Springsteen used the resource that most Americans know at least one suffering veteran. This resource was not strong enough because of the audience’s overwhelming patriotism.
There have been many protest songs in the United States; the freedom of speech has contributed to powerful music and protest words that are written in song. The song that will be discussed throughout this essay is “American Idiot” by Green day. This song speaks volume about the uneducated “America” and puts emphasis on the destruction that reality television is making on the United States of America. Listening to the unspoken word and read between the lies, for that then you will understand. The song “American Idiot” was released during the 2004 presidential election, where George W. Bush was selected into office for the second term as President of the United States of America (source).
