Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Rhetorical analysis-- war is over

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, and the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”
-----Dwight Eisenhower




People always say that great victory has great sacrifice. There are lots of people who are died in the war every year. However, have they ever awakened your conscience or your compassion about how the wars truly are? This video would give you a great view how war or death destroy those innocent people’s life. Therefore, who would feel guilty for all of this?
John Lennon and Yoko Ono wrote this in their New York City hotel room and recorded it during the evening of October 28 and into the morning of the 29th 1971 at the Record Plant in New York. It was released in the US for Christmas.”
“John and Yoko spent a lot of time in the late’60s and early ‘70s working to promote peace. In 1969, they put up billboard advertisements in major cite around the world that said, “War is over! (If you want it!)” Two years later this became the basis for this song when Lennon decided to make a Christmas record with an anti-war massage.”
The people who like the song “Happy Christmas (war is over)” describe themselves as friendly, kind, and shy. It’s connected with the meaning of the song- be friendly and be kind to the world. “And so this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year is over, and a new one just begun....” John Lennon has described a special Christmas to every audience and the listener. It leads us to a world which is filled with violence, fire, and death. It’s a world that we have never been, that is a world that with hopeless future.


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It has gathered my attention at the beginning of the video, there are pairs of pure eyes were looking at the camera. Different faces were shown front of the camera, but with the same expression. I was touched even at the beginning of the video, especially with John Lennon’s tone as the background music. A young boy is sitting in the hospital’s bed; his eyes are filled with fears: not only about what he just went through, also what going to happen in the unknown future. His left hand is clasping his dad’s who still has tears on the face...... An old father is crying without control, his son has just died in the fire......Hundreds of people are running, there is a tank unit behind them......There are countless dead bodies are still lying on the side of streets. A dad who still has his baby in arm is one of them......A little boy gives a “peace” sign to the camera when he is in the military truck..... Two boys are playing in a meadowland which is filled with mines...... A lady is putting a flower at where her husband was died...... This entire video considers to the aspects of the victims during wars. Christmas is the most important holiday to everyone. Like what we all know, we celebrate Christmas as the happiest time in the year. We spend Christmas time with family, sharing presents, eat dinner together. It’s simple but also a significant of the human society. However, the people who are in the war can never have a Christmas like what we do. The factors of Christmas should be happiness, amiability, and peace; it should be the time which is without violence, tears, and fears. Like what John Lennon singed in the song “another year is over, and a new one just begun”, their goal was trying to tell the audiences “war is over” by saying “another year is over”. In addition, it sets the topic off (anti- war) by saying “Happy Christmas” and “war is over”. Christmas is the sign of the war’s ending, it also gave to hopes to everyone that war will be over after “Christmas”.
These are just some episodes in the war, but it also shows us a different side of life. A totally dissimilar underworld than where we live. Like what Mahatma Gandhi said at the end of the video: “An eye for an eye will make us all blind.” We always say “the eye is the mind window”, what the “window” has showed for us is the darkness of the world.“War” is still a sensitive topic for us. But living in a peace world,little by little, we might already forgot what violence world could be, especially for the young generations like us, “War” is something we haven’t been through. We always complain about how discontented we feel about our lives, such and such, however, we haven’t realized there are some people who don’t even have a place to live, who might die anytime under fire, who might lost their family in a split second, who don’t even know where they will be tomorrow. We should understand how grateful to live in a peaceful world if you are touched by looking at those pure eyes. Also, please pray for them for having a happy Christmas and happy life.

Ps: I think there is a color can best describe this video. Blue. Blue is a very emotional color. It can be electric. Cool and spiritual, but it can also be sad, dark and calm. Blue can use its power to change the world, but requires a great deal of persistence to harness its power, I think that would be the responsibility for each one of us.


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Work Cited
Album: Shaved Fish Date: 1971 Chart: 4 Lyrics: View lyrics