War Protest Songs Essays

The iconic song by Redgum “I was only nineteen” shows the objection against recruitment during the Vietnam War. The poem expresses the reality of war, of a young man as well as his viewpoint towards the war and the shortfall of his mates due to the war. The poem portrays war as brutal with men, women and children being tortured and it shows low morale. The song tells the audience about the after effects of war. The song “I was only nineteen” is about the naive, expectations of young soldiers and how unprepared they were about the reality of what was happening. When coming home from the Vietnamese War, no soldiers were thanked till 20 years after what had happened.

There is no doubt that war is evil in every way. It is full of hatred and conflict and nothing comes out of it. It brings death, destruction, and the worst out of people. In a pacifistic yet desperate tone, Dalton Trumbo promotes anti-war ideals by explaining the life of a young soldier after he got affected by war in his novel Johnny Got His Gun. While some individuals’ point of view match with Trumbo’s, others may disagree with his reasoning. The controversial issue of the acceptance of war is talked about everybody, even popular artists. Some singers express their opinions on war via their songs, like George H. Cohan in his song “Over There (Johnny, Get Your Gun)”, and the band Metallica with their song “One”. Each sends different messages depending on the setting, their music’s genre, and diction used in the making of the lyrics.

Lines such as “we don’t deal with outsider’s very well.” and “They say newcomers have a certain smell.” Shows that the in-group is beginning to perceive the outsiders’ negatively given they put them under negative perceptions. The singer continues to express problems with having assumptions made about him and his in-group and not trusting outsiders with the lines. “Yeah I have trust issues. Not to mention, they say they can smell your intentions.” Finally, the lines “You’ll never know the freak show sitting next to you. You’ll have some weird people sitting next to you. You’ll think how did I get here sitting next to you.” finish out the verse reintroducing the idea that people will never learn the good side of a person if they refuse to see anything but

Since the late 1800s, Vietnam has struggled with maintaining independence. Vietnam was under the French control but the Vietnamese wanted to break free of the harsh rules put in place by the French, so Ho Chi Minh created the Indochinese Communist Party in 1940. After the Japanese conquered Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh created the Vietminh in order to gain independence from all foreign rule. Although the Vietnamese defeated the Japanese in 1945, the French had no thoughts of pulling out of Vietnam. By the end of 1945 the French had already reentered into Vietnam and conquered the southern cities.

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.

War is a problem that seems inevitable. America was founded thanks to a war, yet many Americans such as Michael Herr and William James do not support it. They both wrote essays to show the negative effects of war and to shine a new light on the subject. The essay, “Illumination Rounds” by Michael Herr, was published in The New American Review #7 in 1969. Herr speaks of his experiences in Vietnam and shares the abundant coping methods the soldiers use to deal with PTSD. He asserts that war is not worth all of the negative effects.

One example is when it is said, “Machine gun...tearing my body all apart” (Hendrix “Machine Gun”). This quote focuses on how war can tear someone apart. Before soldiers go into war, normal citizens uphold certain codes of conduct and display traits of morality and innocence. This all changes in war and in the battle of returning back home. War destroys all moral and ethical values. Another example is the lyric, “He’s been shot to the ground...Oh where he can’t survive no on” (Hendrix “Machine Gun”). Based on this quote, it is seen that once soldiers hit “rock bottom,” it can be extremely hard to get back on their feet. People come to a point where all the parts of war consume them and get too much for them. The days of living a life of innocence and morality are in the past and all the current issues continue to follow the soldier into his post-war life. The song, “Machine Gun,” by Jimi Hendrix, demonstrates how war can cause a person to lose his innocence and

Many Australian war poems and songs represent or contradict an aspect of the nation’s identity and views. The ballad ‘I was Only Nineteen’ by John Schumann follows the journey of Mick Storen in the Vietnam War, and the atrocities witnessed while there. The theme portrays the continual struggle to cope with the post-effects of war, which provides the nation a new perspective of heroism and hardship (Marshall 2016).

In every American war combined, about 1.2 million soldiers have died fighting in battle. Many look past the effects and consequences that going to war can lead to and every soldier is assumed to be a hero. Others believe that killing anybody, whether they are innocent or on a battlefield, is in no way honorable. Writers who protest war use imagery, irony, and structure to explain the negative effects of battle.

In the second stanza of the song, Sainte-Marie writes how soldier can come from many different religious backgrounds and though it may be against his religion to kill, a soldier “knows he always will” (Universal). In a soldier’s mindset it is kill or be killed, while Sainte-Marie argues that a soldier chooses to be a killer, going against his religion. Protesters during the Vietnam War argued that one of the atrocities of war was death. Americans could not see the reasoning of sending young males to war with a high chance of getting injured or dying when they had their whole life ahead of them (Vietnam). The third stanza of the song infers that no matter what country a soldier is fighting for, they are all fighting for the same result, peace. Within these two stanzas,

In this song the band uses verses to show violent norms and states about how society still has hatred groups. The verses wrap around hatred groups with terrorism living in the United States. The song was written in the 2003 and states about then 9/11 attacks. “Nations droppin' bombs, Chemical gasses fillin' lungs of little ones, With ongoing' sufferin' as the youth die young, So ask yourself is the lovin'

Throughout the song, Staples creates a mood of fear and anger caused by the feeling of oppression and discrimination towards people of colour, which is developed by the writer’s choice to use words that carry negative connotations. He uses the word “frantic” to describe the police’s actions, as this emphasises their decision to use their weapons in situations that may not require them to be used, especially the use of guns - the weapon that is responsible for many deaths in situations where police brutality was involved. In the following line, Staples urges people of colour to not “panic” as they see the flashing lights of police cars. This is something that has the power to create fear in black people, as it is more likely that they will be questioned and searched than white people, due to the racial stereotype that black people are more likely to be guilty of committing a crime than someone who is white. This presents the power held by police officers and the fear felt by black people towards people who are employed to protect their community. He also uses the word “oppressed” to explain the way that laws and authority can make him feel, showing that although he is trying to fight against this abuse and violence, he also feels saddened that there is even a need for him to fight against such harsh and unjust behaviour towards people of his race. Staples refers to police officers as “pigs”, a term he uses to describe police officers that actively abuse the authority they have, to show the lack of respect he has for those officers. The selection of these words helps the listener to understand the way that

The lyrics, “situation, aggravation everybody allegation… bang, bang, shot dead, everybody gone bad” refers to the amount of violence that is occurring and how everyone is making decisions that are controlled

Wars are often glorified in tone to give praise and respect for those on the battlefields. There is an overall understanding that there are sacrifices needed in order to accomplish a larger goal. Excluded from this understanding is the realization that the effects of war

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