Edwin Starr's War: The Meaning Of War

Throughout all the anti-war protests and marches during the Vietnam War, it is interesting to note the changes in the music of that time. From the beginning of the war, where support and loyalty from Americans was present in songs, to the end of the war, where anger and distrust was evident in musical lyrics, American’s opinion changed about the war. This change in opinion was easily recognized by the altering of musical lyrics about the war when Americans grew tired of the constant sending of U.S. troops to Vietnam. The growing dissatisfaction with the Vietnam War led to increasing levels of anger and hostility in the popular music of the time.

Protest poems and songs are, and have been throughout history, an effective medium of expressing their composer’s concerns or protests to a wide audience. The main themes behind each of these creative media are influenced heavily by the context in which they were created and focus on the composer’s opinions about controversial issues of that time. Poet Bruce Dawe, through his poem ‘homecoming’ and singer-songwriter Barry Maguire, through his song ‘Eve of destruction’ were able to explore and express their similar concerns about the harsh and dehumanising aspects of war and the effects on society, with Maguire focussing on the ignorance of society toward the detrimental effects of war and Dawe reflecting on emotional trauma experienced by those who lost love ones to the brutality of war.

“My conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me towards war (49).” “I did not want people to think badly of me. Not my parents, not my brother or sister, not even the folks at Gobler Café (49).” These men were stuck between a rock and a hard place, and this was the case in many aspects of war, not

In the book, America's Great War: World War I and the American Experience, Robert H. Zieger discusses the events between 1914 through 1920 forever defined the United States in the Twentieth Century. When conflict broke out in Europe in 1914, the President, Woodrow Wilson, along with the American people wished to remain neutral. In the beginning of the Twentieth Century United States politics was still based on the "isolationism" ideals of the previous century. The United States did not wish to be involved in European politics or world matters. The U.S. goal was to expand trade and commerce throughout the world and protect the borders of North America.

2. Is the intent of this song to promote or protest the Vietnam War? Why?

The author contradicted himself while describing war. He claimed, “ War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is

My fellow cousin, how are you? I have yet to send a letter and I’m sorry for that. Life right now is a little uneasy for me, there is so much to fear and not to fear. Texas has just made its move on leaving the union and there is so much to think of that.

For example, “ I feel like I'm fixing to die” a song by Country Joe and The Fish, 1965, was one of the popular protest songs. The song was an anti-war song that drew people's attention to the point that the war was a bad idea. The author includes antiwar lyrics like “Whoopee! We’re all gonna die” and “Be the first one on your block, to have your boy come home in a box.” people hearing lyrics like that made them rethink their kids going into war as it seemed like they were going just to die and come home in boxes.

Many of the words that soldiers used to describe their surroundings and themselves had negative underlying meanings and many of the platoon members and O’Brien (p.54) believed it wasn’t fair that they were out fighting a war while everyone else was back home. The implementation of new words and phrases into the story gave the setting a more authentic feel and added depth to the characters in the book.

Throughout history, protests have been proven to be the more effective methods of getting a message across, whether it’s to express disdain for the misdeeds of police officers, or to protest the U.S.’s involvement in war. This was seen especially during the Vietnam War, one of the more recent wars this country has been involved in. Many people around the country expressed their opinions about the idea of war, in several forms, including riots, protests, and draft dodging. Along with this form of expression and practicing of free speech, several music artists, including Creedence Clearwater Revival, Marvin Gaye, and Edwin Starr, joined in the anti-war movement by conveying their own two cents about the matter through the lyrics of catchy, impassioned songs. In the song “War” by Edwin Starr, Starr attempts to portray his negative view on war, through the use of pathos to create a more intimate bond with his listeners, a very aggressive, yet passionate tone, and the song’s close resemblance of a protest, in auditory form.

Swimming against a current of pro-war fervor, McKinley stuck to his guns and persisted on remaining diplomatic with the investigation of the Maine explosion still ongoing. This seemed to infuriate the entire nation. Jingoists in congress, yellow journalists and the American public were clamoring for Spanish blood after the Maine, and to them McKinley came across as a feeble leader. McKinley offered one last chance for Spain to avoid war by agreeing to an armistice. He thought that the Spanish would understand that it would be a foolish decision to engage in war with a rising US power. The negative Spanish response did not leave McKinley with many options.

War, a brutal, barbaric and animalistic concept that contradicts the essence of being human. War by Edwin Starr, and Happy Christmas by John Lennon are songs promoting the anti-war movement. Released in 1970 and 1972, whilst the war of Vietnam continues, both of these song depicts tone and mood through the themes love, peace and unity. Both artists has incorporated literary devices within the lyrics to convey the message and resonate it towards the audience.

War is something that all countries have been apart of at some point. War, is an awful thing, but it is inevitable and impossible to avoid is many cases. Although, sometimes war cannot be avoided, it is still protested by many people. Many protesters who are also former soldiers; protest war by writing about it using certain techniques of writing. Writers use irony, structure, and imagery to protest war in their writings.

War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, written by the talented author Chris Hedges, gives us provoking thoughts that are somewhat painful to read but at the same time are quite personal confessions. Chris Hedges, a talented journalist to say the least, brings nearly 15 years of being a foreign correspondent to this book and subjectively concludes how all of his world experiences tie together. Throughout his book, he unifies themes present in all wars he experienced first hand. The most important themes I was able to draw from this book were, war skews reality, dominates culture, seduces society with its heroic attributes, distorts memory, and supports a cause, and allures us by a

In the Vietnam songs, all of the songs were made as protest songs against war. These songs sent a message that war is not something that we as humans should be doing and that we shouldn't have to solve our problems by killing each other. The American society felt the same way. Why are we doing this? This is not what we should be doing as humans, and this was partly why the American people didn't really welcome veterans back from war. They thought that what they were doing was "wrong" and it's not really solving anything, it's only taking lives. In the first song, "War" by Edwin Starr, there is a very clear message that war is good for nothing. Life is to short to spend fighting in wars. War is nothing but a heart-breaker and it shatters young