The Hypocrisy Of The Civilized Society English Literature Essay

In the relatively short time of the existence of the United States, society has allowed the written word to seep into our everyday existence. What has been written forms our everyday lives; our country, democracy, freedom, laws, religions, news, stories, and our history that is passed on through generations. Much of the written word has found its way to be presented in rather elegant form, but not always so in subject matter. Throughout the history of America, the views of civility and civilized society have changed through times of progress, conflict and peace. Perception of ideals has shifted, political correctness has emerged, and cultural rules have changed. The literature of America reflects the hypocrisy of civilized society and uncovers truths that need to be told and that want to be heard.

Annotated Bibliography of The Selling of Joseph, by Samuel Sewall

Amacher, Richard E. “Samuel Sewall.” American Colonial Writers, 1606-1734. Ed. Emory Elliott. Detroit: Gale Research, 1984. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 24. Literature Resource Center. Web. 6 Mar. 2011.

When delving into the some of the early American Literature, one does not expect to find much available in defense of the African American race, and the common mistreatment endured by the people of a certain birthright or skin color. The Selling of Joseph, written in 1700, by Samuel Sewell, is one such surprising piece. Richard E. Amacher, in his Biographical Essay on Samuel Sewall, contrasts The Selling of Joseph, with work that focused on taming African Americans and rationalized their slavery, sale and mistreatment.

In as much as the Puritans used the bible and the Word of their God to rationalize society’s treatment of African Americans as slaves, Sewall uses the bible and quotes it directly to show that their God certainly does not agree with the mistreatment of any human. Sewell argues that in the common man’s belief of Adam and Eve, that all men were heirs of the couple who fell from grace with temptation and gained their liberty, for better or worse. All heirs were entitled as equals to Adam and Eve. The gift of liberty was violated by the sale of Joseph by his brothers. (Amacher 13) God’s word in Exodus 21:16 supported this argument; This Law being of Everlasting Equity, wherein Man Stealing is ranked amongst the most atrocious of Capital Crimes. (Amacher 13) (Sewell 2)

Richard E. Amacher’s comparison of Samuel Sewell’s The Selling of Joseph with other work of the same time period confirms that not all people of society agreed with the ownership of people or their employ or indenture as servants or slaves. A cultural rule of the 1700’s was wide acceptance of slavery. Sewall looked at the Humanitarian aspect, and how society should treat all people. His attempt to influence society to change this pattern would not be realized for a great many years, yet his literary contributions show that not all bought into this ideal. Amacher emphasizes that:

Sewall’s [work] concentrated on human liberty as such, although he, too, good Calvinist that he was, buttressed his mainly humanitarian interests with many scriptural quotations. (Amacher 13)

Theologically, the people of a society owe liberty to all descendants of Adam and Eve, as equals. Each side of the argument of slave ownership is supported by the same book, and end in different interpretations; each claiming to be correct based on their texts.

Annotated Bibliography of The Gettysburg Address, by Abraham Lincoln

Lodge, Henry Cabot. “The Democracy of Abraham Lincoln” The Democracy of the Constitution and Other Addresses and Essays. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1915. 122-159. Rpt. In Nineteenth- Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Janet Mullane. Vol. 18. Detroit: Gale Research, 1988. Literature Resource Center. Web. 7, Mar. 2011.

Henry Lodge Cabot speaks of the true meaning behind the words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, in his essay titled the Democracy of Abraham Lincoln. Cabot explains his opinion about Lincoln’s idea concerning the government of the people. It is a government made up the citizens (the people) and its purpose is for governing of the people. The constitution is shown to be a continual pillar in our country. The document has basically been the same since the foundation of our nation. There have been some changes to the Constitution, such as three war time amendments, and the establishment of the income tax. The paper continues to state that Lincoln stated his opinion so clearly that there was no escape from its meaning.

The Democracy of Abraham Lincoln is a good source about Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address as Cabot seems to fully grasp Lincoln’s meaning behind this famous speech. The information stated seems to show Lincoln’s belief that he could just deliver a basic message and with his words were fully understood. It is an example of a man who took his beliefs that the government should be for all the people. On review of this author’s work I can definitely agree with his statement as follows; “In his usual fashion he stated his proposition so clearly and with such finality that there is no escape from his meaning.” This actually shows the fact that Lincoln simply told it how it was, with no fluff or exaggeration.

The true meaning behind The Democracy of Abraham Lincoln supports the statement that as time change, the literature of that time changes to reflect the views of society. This address was a major turning point in civilized society. For the United States, the address was to be a benefit to the entire nation. The point of the address was to show that it is for “all people” but our society did and continues to show hypocrisy. It was not the original intent of our government but has shown to be a real issue in the world. Cabot explained Lincoln’s reasoning behind this speech but the overall result is not truly carried out in our country.

Annotated Bibliography of Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Grimm, Reverend David E. “Introducing Unitarian Universalism.” Interfaith Conference. Washburn University. Yager Stadium, Topeka, Kansas. October, 11, 2003. Web. 3 March 2011. <http://www.emersonsermons.com/iuu.html>

Reverend David E. Grimm is a Unitarian Universalist minister, as was Emerson. The Unitarian Universalists have held Ralph Waldo Emerson in high regard for a great many years. Some of their principals come directly from the work of Emerson, and others were influenced by it. One of their principals is the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Reverend Grimm gave a speech on Unitarian Universalism, where he introduced the Religion at an interfaith conference. In this speech, he gave a brief overview of Emerson, and stated that the “desirable state of affairs where one could actually read the moral law directly for oneself was called “self-reliance” by a young Unitarian minister named Ralph Waldo Emerson.” Grimm interprets the Essay by Emerson to mean that one should learn to trust the “power within yourself to discern the higher law, to know what’s right.”

This idea that a person could discern right from wrong without the guidance of the bible was not necessarily a new idea, but was not put out in the open so eloquently until Emerson wrote Self Reliance. Emerson was a Unitarian minister, but he left the church to pursue a career of writing. His writing still reflected his Unitarian beliefs, and in today’s time, they are not only Unitarian, but more Unitarian Universalist, which only came to be after a merging of the two religions. The implications from the insight of Emerson brought an understanding of “moral norms” to Unitarianism. Grim States:

After all, in the light of self-reliance, the Bible was seen for what it was: second-hand religion, a religion handed down from the past to us, from somebody else’s original reading of the moral law long ago. (Grimm 15)

Grim concludes that Self reliance unseated the hold of not only the Bible, but the sacred texts of other religions as well. All were someone else’s interpretation of the moral law. It was the act of the interpretation that Emerson explained that a person “could do for themselves.” Grimm claims that Self Reliance put a truth out for people to consider:

And so, over time, not just the Bible, but sacred texts from all of the world’s religions, came to be honored among us [Unitarian Universalists] as expressions of this universal human attempt to know what is right, and to do it. (Grimm 15)

Emerson said “Whoso would be a man, must be a non-conformist.” (Emerson 7) meaning not to revolt against the system of man, but to question it, and gain knowledge that it holds. To accept answers on the basis of another’s opinion was trust not placed well. The major religions relied on their bible to relay right and wrong. Emerson attempts to tell the people that they already know right from wrong, and they only need to pull these morals from within.

Annotated Bibliography of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Grant, William E. “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-4. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 10 Mar. 2011.

Mark Twain gave the world The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1876. It was a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Twain opens this novel by explaining to the reader that he is being true to the characters of the book by keeping their regional dialects. According to William E. Grant, in his criticism titled “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” published in Masterplots, states:

The skill with which Twain elevates the dialect of an illiterate village boy to the highest levels of poetry established the spoken American idiom as a literary language and earned for Twain the reputation, proclaimed for him by Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and many others, as the father of the modern American novel. (Grant 13)

Aside from the dialect of the characters, Twain manages to bring forth an uncanny goodness in most of the characters. Twain successfully depicts the world the characters live in as volatile and ever changing. Every character is in some sort of conflict.

Themes of the novel are: Society in itself is hypocritical, Freedom, Slavery, Search for a Father Figure, the common man versus the world (or society) and the brotherhood of man. According to Grant, Twain “believed human beings to be innately good though increasingly corrupted by social influences that replace their intuitive sense of right and wrong.” (Grant 14)

The character of Huck battles with his conscience many times in trying to decide what would be the right thing to do. He fakes his death in order to save himself, yet, feels it could be the reason his father died. Huck struggles with Jim’s status as a slave and if he should turn him in or not. Huck eventually decides to “go to Hell” and maintain his decision to break what is considered morally and legally wrong, and not turn Jim in; in fact, he protects Jim at every turn. Edwards feels that “Twain compellingly establishes the irony that Huck’s “sin” against the social establishment affirms the best that is possible in the individual.”

Within the novel, references are made to “code of Honor” with the Shepherdson boys, who live under the law of vendetta against the Grangerfords. There are also numerous references to “civilize”. The Widow Douglass attempts to “Civilize” Huck, making him wear “fancies” on Sundays and act proper and sit up straight. She wanted to teach him religion, yet she ironically holds slaves. She seemingly does not hold herself to what even she feels is not wholly right; she will not have her slaves sold to anyone else because she cares for them very well and she would not have them sent to someone who would treat them as good as she.

Grant is of the opinion that “slavery provides Twain his largest metaphor for both social bondage and institutionalized injustice and inhumanity.” He further feels that the novel is not an anti-slavery novel per say, but “rather than attacking an institution already legally dead, Twain uses the idea of slavery as a metaphor for all social bondage and injustice.” (Grant 15) The novel was published nearly thirteen years after the end of the civil war, yet opinions and perceptions on race were not yet settled.

Both Huck and Jim were literally and in perceptual slavery to the Widow Douglass. They both flee to begin a new life in a slave free state, yet cast off headed south on the Mississippi. Grant offered insight to the direction of the raft as “It is almost irrelevant that Twain has Huck and Jim running deeper into the South rather than north toward free soil. Freedom exists neither in the North nor in the South but in the ideal and idyllic world of the raft and river.” (Grant 15)

The raft and the River both play catalyst to the heart of the relationship of Huck and Jim. The two see themselves fleeing the same situations, in their minds. Both take risks for one another, and there are consequences of being caught for both Huck and Jim. Huck is perceived as an abolitionist, punishable by death. Jim is seen as the murderer of Huck, punishable by death. While each has their life on the line for the other, they sincerely protect each another, almost as father and son. They make stops along the river for supplies and rest, each stop bringing an adventure that sends them fleeing once again for the “sanctuary” of their raft. Grant considers “It is onshore that Huck encounters the worst excesses of which “the damned human race” is capable, but with each return to the raft comes a renewal of spiritual hope and idealism.” Grant 16)

William E. Grants essay enforces the idea of Hypocrisy in Civilized Society. The novel brings situations of Slavery, Civility, rules and wrongs that many people of the 19th century simply did not want to hear about, speak of, or deal with. They would have to turn the mirror inward and have a good look at themselves, because most people simply followed the cultural rules, and did not speak out even if they thought something was wrong. Grant ends his essay of criticism of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with a most well written statement:

Through the adventures of an escaped slave and a runaway boy, both representatives of the ignorant and lowly of the earth, Twain affirms that true humanity is found in humans rather than institutions. (Grant 14)

While this novel continually takes a beating for its content, the underlying moral truths that are exposed can still be applied to current times, with only a slight twist. It is literature such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that should remain as originally written, unedited, in order to maintain the integrity with which it was intended.

Annotated Bibliography of The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Grimes, Linda Sue. “Robert Frost’s Tricky Poem.” Analysis of ‘The Road Not Taken’. Suite101.com Media Inc., 14 Apr. 2008. Web. 9 Mar. 2011. <http://www.suite101.com/content/robert-frost-s-tricky-poem-a8712>.

The Road Not Taken was written by Robert Frost. This poem characterizes an assertion of individualism. In Robert Frost’s Tricky Poem, an analysis by Linda Sue Grimes, she states that Frost claims this poem was about his friend Edward Thomas. They [Frost and Thomas] would periodically go on walks in the woods near London. While they would be enjoying their walk they would come across two different roads to take. After choosing one road, rumor has it; Thomas would always wonder what was down the other road.

According to Grimes in Robert Frost’s Tricky Poem, the first stanza is describing the situation, which was the dilemma of choosing one road over the other. The second stanza describes the road he decides to take. “Because it was grassy and wanted wear” he takes the road that is less traveled on, even though he stated that they were and were not exactly the same. The third stanza continuities to describe the roads, he notices the difference between the two. Such as the leaves were freshly fallen and both had not been walked on. The forth stanza has tricky words, “I shall be telling this with a sigh”, the word “this” can be interpreted as a relief or regret in the decision of the road he takes. (Frost 16) Different interpretations can be identified after reading The Road Not Taken, such as views upon friendship or his future behind the road he has taken and his experiences because of his choice.

In the beginning of the 20th century there was a strong focus on individuality and nature, as it offered an escape from focus of World War I. Various processes in industrialism were taking shape in the country and changing views of society. Frost’s poetry served as a system check back to reality from the chaos of the times. As Grimes says:

In this poem, it is important to be careful with the time frame. When the speaker says he will be reporting sometime in the future how his road choice turned out, he clearly states that he cannot assign meaning to “sigh” and “difference” yet, because he cannot know how his choice will affect his future, until after he has lived it. (Grimes 11)

Annotated Bibliography of Resistance to Civil Government by Henry David Thoreau

Yarborough, Wynn. “Readings of Thoreau’s ‘Resistance to Civil Government’. American Transcendentalism Web. Virginia Commonwealth University. 1995. Web. March 11, 2011. < http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/critonrcg.html>

Wynn Yarborough’s paper, titled Readings of Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government”, is an overview of Thoreau’s” Resistance to Civil Government”, which is sometimes simply called “Civil Disobedience”, is based on a variety of sources from the 1920’s through the 1970’s. In the early paragraphs, Mr. Yarborough goes through the stages of Thoreau’s life and different ways in which his work was perceived through the years. The remainder of the paper consists primarily of variety of different opinions and how each of them plays a part in certain time periods. The overall view of the references used by Mr. Yarborough is that Thoreau was a man with a great ability to justify his beliefs. Each of the views expressed by him seems to be validated by other’s in the years to come.

It is my belief that Mr. Yarborough was very informative with this paper. It was an overview complied from many sources over an extended period of time. Each of the critics shows a side of Thoreau and they use his beliefs to back up their choices. The government is reflected in different ways during each of the reviews that Mr. Yarborough states. I feel that each of the critics of Thoreau may believe that his ways were not justified and that perhaps he was not rational. Critics such as Vivas, Parrington and MacKayne all show a variety of beliefs which may be justified by critiquing Thoreau. One example in Mr. Yarborough’s research that speaks to the significance of Thoreau’s writings is “In the 1960s, Thoreau became not only relevant but almost a popular icon.”

The statement that as time changes the literature of that time changes to reflect the views of society is shown correct with this review and how Thoreau’s work is used to further many causes. Each time period from the 1920’s through the 1970’s has shown that the government had ever changing values. While time continues to change literature, time changes to reflect the views of society. Hypocrisy will always be a part of the government as it was so many years ago and it continues today. It is not the intention of the people involved but it is how society seems to function as a whole.

Annotated Bibliography of Smoke and Steel by Carl Sandburg

Niven, Penelope. “Carl (August) Sandburg.” American Poets, 1880-1945: Third Series. Ed. Peter Quartermain. Detroit: Gale Research, 1987. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 54. Literature Resource Center. Web. 14 Mar. 2011.

Penelope Niven’s Critical essay, titled Carl (August) Sandburg, offers a look at the life and work of Carl Sandberg, an American Poet. Niven opens with a brief biographical essay, highlighting that Sandburg came from humble beginnings as the child of immigrants from Sweden. His parents met after they arrived in the United States, in Illinois. They were in search of “a share of American democracy and prosperity.” (Niven 4) His father was a hard worker, being employed by the railroad yard as a blacksmith.

Sandburg was born in 1878, and was raised speaking both English and Swedish. According to Niven, Carl Sandberg was eager to assimilate into American Culture and Society at a very early age. When he was in grade school, he changed his name from a Swedish sounding ‘Carl’ to a more American Sounding ‘Charles’. (Niven 4) There were many children in the Sandburg household, and after the deaths of two of the children, in 1892, Charles was forced to leave school to help with the family’s needed income.

In 1897, Sandburg left his family, at the age of eighteen, and toured the United States on the rails as a hobo. He gained knowledge of different areas, and worked odd jobs with the local working class people to get a small bit of money that helped him from one place to another. His desire to travel was immense, and he eventually volunteered for service in the Spanish American War in 1898. (Niven 6)

His status as a veteran allowed him to attend college at no cost. He did attend, but did not excel, and eventually left. Sandburg was more interested with people and the landscape than he was with proper schooling. Sandberg began to write about the American people being candid and “rugged”, speaking in “individual free-verse style which spoke clearly, directly, and often crudely to the audience which was also his subject.” (Niven 10)

He became an investigative reporter for the Chicago Daily News; he further developed passionate social concerns. Nivens states:

He covered war, racial strife, lynchings, mob violence, and the inequities of the industrial society, such as child labor, and disease and injury induced in the workplace. These concerns were transmuted into poetry.

Sandberg published several books of poetry, the first being Chicago Poems, that gave realistic views from the working class, children, and the “‘inexplicable fate’ of the vulnerable and struggling human victims of war, progress, business.”

The following volume of poetry was titled Smoke and Steel (1920), which focused on the harsh reality of the times. The volume “vividly depicts the daily toil of the working man and woman, ‘the people who must sing or die.'” Within the volume, a poem also titled Smoke and Steel, Sandburg uses Smoke from steel mills, spring fields, and autumn leaves as metaphors for “the blood of a man”. He considers them a life force, but also that which gives the people commonality. The poem details “the struggle of the common man.”

Nivens finds that the Volume as a collection is uneven and concludes with “contradictory critical views”. She further states that other critics have labeled Sandburg as having “no sense of the past or vision of the future.” Some critics, however, did find that “this son of Swedish immigrants was particularly suited to write about the “incomplete, but urgent and hopeful” American democracy” and that Sandberg allows others to see “our national life in the large–its beauty and glory, its baseness and shame.”

This article by Penelope Nivens offers a great look at the life and times of Carl Sandberg, and does relate his work, as a whole, to spotlighting the hypocrisy of American Society, within the time period that it is written, the 1920’s, in the height of the Industrial Revolution. Within the poem, Smoke and Steel, the focus is on the lifeblood of all the people and what the people must do and conform to in order to make society work, and work for each of them. Even those who wish to escape the hypocrisy of civilized society and do something else will eventually return because of the jobs provided by industry. “The anthem learned by the steel is: Do this or go hungry.” (Sandburg 104, 105) Nivens concludes “Yet as the spokesman for the great human family, Carl Sandburg, biographer, historian, troubadour, and poet, speaks to any period, any place.”

Annotated Bibliography of Smoke and Steel by Carl Sandburg

Yannella, Philip. The Other Carl Sandburg. Univ. Press of Mississippi, 1996. Google Books. Web. 14 Mar. 2011. http://books.google.com/books?id=9T9h_xAdxGwC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage &q&f=false

Phillip Yannella has written immense material analyzing the poetry and works of Carl Sandburg, a poet of the early 20th century. In his book titled, The Other Carl Sandburg, Yanella looks at several of the books that Sandburg wrote, and attempts to shed light onto each volume, and give a bit of a representation to some of the more important individual poems contained within the volumes.

The volume, Smoke and Steel, comprised many poems, and was the second book for Carl Sandburg. The first book reflected positively on the working class, and its eventual happiness to be active and productive. The second book, Smoke and Steel, has “no heroic working class about to rise up to take its just due, no models of proper working class behavior, no noble immigrant workers, no happy autonomous humanistic workers, workers who danced and sang in spite of their lowness.” (Yannella 144) Instead, with Smoke and Steel, Sandburg portrayed the worker as an angry and violent soul, and who harbored hostility against society. The worker was invisible.

The time when the work was written, the 1920’s, is important because the Race Riots had just happened, and there was a steel dispute that caused workers to decline in numbers, the union to strike, and allowed technology to take many a workers job.

The poem titled Smoke and Steel is the longest in the volume of the same name. “It contains some of the most intense, suggestive language he ever wrote.” (Yanella 145) Sandburg metaphorically compares the smoke to the blood of man. He says that there is smoke in the mills, in the fields, in the burning leaves, and this smoke is from the work done by the common man. This man puts so much of himself into the task that the smoke becomes his blood and without it he cannot sustain, as the work cannot sustain without the worker. “Smoke into blood, and blood into steel.” “They make the steel with men.”

The work of Sandburg and the Analysis by Phillip Yannella prove the thesis that society is hypocritical in itself, by requiring things to be made through industry to support it, yet it is the man who works in industry, and in doing so, suffers. The poem, Smoke and Steel, has powerful language that exposes the fact that steel is part of our everyday life, and it creeps into the everyday existence of every person. What is of the person and family who worked so hard and sometimes gave their life to give these often meaningless things to society? Sandburg states “Smoke and blood is the mix of steel” connecting the product with what has gone into making it. (Sandburg 45) He continues, as if every other person in the country is named Steve. “Steve and the rest of us end on the same stars; we all wear a hat in hell together, in hell or heaven.” (Sandburg 71) Sandburg touches on the environmental aspect as the byproduct of the steel that is made, slag, is washed out by fire and wind, and states “Forever the slag gets washed in fire and wind” because slag will contaminate wherever it lies forever. Sandberg shows that in our time or progress, we find need for steel and other industry, for our planes, our warships, and our rails. Sandburg humanizes the workers as brothers, and extends their reach as smoke from all industry to reach every American.

Annotated Bibliography of I have a Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dlugan, Andrew. “Speech Analysis: I Have a Dream – Martin Luther King Jr.” Six Minutes. Six Minutes, Jan. 2009. Web. 14 Mar. 2011. <http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/speech-analysis- dream- martin-luther-king/>.

On August 28, 1963 the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech, is called “Dream Day.” Andrew Dlugan, in his speech analysis, states “I Have A Dream is one of the most memorable speeches of all time.” (Dlugan). That title represents an uplifting illusion to all who had the honor of listening to the speech, at least once in their lifetime. According to Dlugan, There are many uses of literally terms in the topics of King’s speech, such as rhetorical methods, including repetition, metaphors, inspiration, identification and persuasion.

Dlugan points out that “I Have A Dream” is repeated eight times. This is an example of anaphora in modern rhetoric. The repetition of words is common within the speech. Freedom is repeated 20 times, mainly because freedom is the primary theme. The words, we, 30 times, our, seventeen times and dream, eleven times. In paragraph two of King’s speech, “Five score years ago…” refers to Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address speech which began “Four score and seven years ago…” This allusion is particularly poignant given that King was speaking in front of the Lincoln Memorial” (Dlugan). Geographic reference was mention throughout the speech, Mississippi and New York (paragraph 13), Georgia (paragraph 19) and Alabama (paragraph 22). Lastly, metaphors are highlighting the contrast between two abstract concepts. “Joyous daybreak to end the long night captivity” (Paragraph 2). “The Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity” (Paragraph 3).

This speech and analysis of it prove the thesis by showing that the people do not stand on the moral ground that they think that they do. Society has been living without seeing that other people, who share the same lands as they, are not afforded common respect, and that this is hypocritical in principal. Dulgan revealed metaphors in the speech that exposed the fact that people need to see beyond the layers that are set for them and focus on similarities and move beyond differences. In the beginning of the King’s speech he opened by pulling Lincoln’s vision of a country of peaceful Americans. King extended this vision and called attention to the fact 100 years later of our country of common Americans can’t see past minor differences and come together as a peaceful society. He brings old words into current times with relevant issues. The same could be done in today’s time.

Annotated Bibliography of Masters of War by Bob Dylan

Bradley, Sam. Sep 16, 2009. “Bob Dylan’s Masters of War performed by SamBradley.” YouTube. Web. 14 Mar. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaMz8pgua_0>.

This video was created by Sam Bradley, a musician, who covers the song, Masters of War, originally performed and written by Bob Dylan. Bradley was not trying to add shock value to the song Masters of War, but that is the way it can be perceived. This is only a video made up of one man’s view of what a Master of War may look like at a given period in time. It is a series of actual pictures of individuals whom the author believes to have contributed to war or violence. The video is trying to serve the purpose of creating pictures for the words of a Bob Dylan song, Masters of War, but it has a great deal of additional individuals in the video who did not contribute to the war that Dylan was writing about, but who may have had a parts in other periods of certain wars.

I feel this video attempted to create an atmosphere of controversy and try to use some shocking images to portray the song Masters of War by Bob Dylan. I believe that the video was produced in order to put pictures into our minds during the song but it can actually have a more negative impact as the pictures may instill a more violent approach to the song. I do not feel it served a real benefit to the song but then again perhaps the creator of the video was not trying to help the relevance of the song but only ignite a new series of negativity to the world. As I understand it, Bob Dylan’s intent in writing Masters of War was not to be anti war, but to be pacifistic against war.

This video supports the idea that society is not truly civilized, and is in itself hypocritical. The lyrics that Bob Dylan has written for Masters of War are proof that the happenings of any certain time period directly reflect the work of the time. The lyrics were written in the time of the Vietnam War, and the video visually updates the lyrics with perspective from the current day. Photographic evidence of conflict and relevant issues that relate back to Dylan’s lyrics relay the message that society will never change, and that we never listen to the activists for peace, even though it is the struggle for peace that the public is told that the fighting is for. Society, with all its advancements, education, wealth and stock of ideas, is unable to keep itself free from war and conflict. The video shows that Nations have their leaders appointed, or voted into office, and in turn, the people have their expected behaviors dictated to them, and society unquestionably conforms.

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