Industrial Revolution in America - Essay Example

Compare and contrast three stewards from the American catalogue of memory American history is enriched with rapid changes and occurrences of events, which have framed its social and economic framework. Both literature and art have covered these developments in different styles and approaches. Works of Gil Scott-Heron, a musician and writer, Noah Blake’s Diary and Ambrose Bierce’s short stories on the American Civil War provide worthwhile insights into the social and cultural backdrop of USA especially belonging to the 19th and 20th century. All these stewards of the American catalog of memory have highlighted different aspects of social and economic transformation and characteristics by using minute details and elaborations. Gil-Scott uses musical lyrics to describe his childhood and his broken family background. He reflects philosophical representations of the dark side of the lessons learnt from his life’s experience. Through his writings one would come to know of the racial structure and the problems faced by the black women specifically despite the official end to slavery. Therefore to understand the lyrics of his music and poems it is important to understand the developments in his life. For instance in the 28-minute track record of ‘I’m New Here’ he recorded a poem written by him more than 30 years ago titled ‘Coming from a Broken Family’ – “Women folk raised me and I was full grown/before I knew I came from a broken home.” (Wilkinson, 3) He wrote this from the memories of his own life where his parents were separated when he was two years old. Intelligent women raised him and they had a strong influence on his life. When his mother was away working as an English teacher he stayed home with his Grandmother who inspired the talent for music in him and hired a teacher to play the piano. Again he uses the song ‘Me and the Devil’ to reflect his confession for attacking a woman. The song also talks about the way the women were treated in the black community by their male counterparts and hitting women was a common practice. He travels from one emotion to another through his songs in the track and a example of a sad one is ‘New York is Killing Me’ – “Bunch of doctors come around, but they don’t know that New York is killing me/ I need to go home and take it slow in Jackson, Tennessee”. This shows the strong attachment he feels to his roots back in his hometown and his community. Thus despite the legal destruction of slavery and racial inequality, problems and discrimination still persisted during the time of Scott-Heron. The time was marked by the Montgomery Bus Boycott in December 1955, the Selma March in 1965 led by Martin Luther King and the Voting Rights Act approved with signature of President Johnson in 1965 (The Seattle Times, 2010). In this background, it was natural for the talented artist to long for the safety and peace of his hometown. Till then hindrances like literacy tests were framed to prevent the Afro Americans from voting. The late 19th century was also a time for industrial revolution in America. Noah Blake’s Diary makes the readers aware of the technical know-how of the people of early days when they made effective tools out of simple resources around them. This is depicted through the process in which Noah helped his father in making the floor by acquiring timbers from the woods – “We fell a fine oak and rolled it upon rails for Spring seasoning. Mother is joyous a the thought of a good wood floor” (Sloane, 7) Glass windows were a kind of luxury in those times and rarely found but Noah’s window had glass panes, which is the first evidence of the technical, know how later elaborated in his diary. Sloane makes a comparison between the tools and weapons of modern time and those made in the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth century. Just like modern day’s children are taught about firearms the children of those days were taught the proper way of handling the axe. The diary shows how different colored inks were made at home. It also reflects the refreshments of “candy” for dessert, which in modern day has been replaced by variations of chocolates and expensive sweets. In modern times the importance of money is highly realized and even a teenager would like to get money for any work he does. This is unlike the simple and innocent pleasure the young boy derives from the maple syrup he gets from his neighbor for helping them sugaring maples. The authors begins with some notes about his collection of simple items which people of modern times will not think of using of keeping so well preserved but the roadway to industrialization was well paved by these gradually developments and these simple man made resources of daily life later led to further conception of complex objects and tools. The author’s sketches throughout the book shows the difference and the first two sketches are especially significant since it reflects the way the natural beauty of the place was transformed into a more commercialized depiction of life. Bierce’s stories reflect the menace of the American Civil War and the author uses emotional ties and simple vision of complex occurrences. For instance in the story, ‘A Horseman in the Sky’, the flight of the horseman has been described like a fairy tale but the tragedy is revealed in the end where the readers come to know that the protagonist of the story, a soldier of the Union has shot the horse ridden by his Father leading the Confederate forces (Bierce, 83). He is inspired by some old advice about duty his father had given him when he decided to join the Union army – “Whatever may occur, do what you conceive to be your duty” (Bierce, 82). The author begins by describing the picturesque view of the landscape, which served as the strategic war field. He uses soft and rich vocabulary to describe something, which has a far graver and tragic implication. In another short story of Bierce, ‘Chickamauga’ is about the way the innocent six-year-old child makes a sword to imagine him as a soldier and then sleeps through the fight. When he wakes up and finds the soldiers approaching the water to wash and drink he happily rides on one of them and then leads them and later returns home to find his mother dead. The boy belongs to a white family he even dances playfully before the deaf and mute child is shocked at the bloody scene within the house. The war has hardly any serious meaning to the child until he faces the harsh reality. In both the stories the author makes the protagonists unaware of the seriousness of the occurrence of scenario even a few minutes or seconds before realization dawns and a very contrasting feeling takes over. From the above discussion we find that all the three stewards have used their works to depict at least one aspect of the cultural, social and economic life in their unique approaches. Scott-Heron uses childhood memories to depict the social and communal lifestyle merged with the evolution of a talented artist like himself. Noah Blake uses the elaborate description of technical know-how in his diary and the author uses these details to take the readers back to the time preceding the industrial revolution and the simple and resourceful living of the country people and children. Thirdly the short stories of Bierce show different instances from the Civil War and the way it affected different families. Therefore, in the three works, the backdrops and objects used to create memory are different in nature but all of them reveal important details about the historical setting of America and the events through which the nation has evolved. Works Cited Bierce, Ambrose, ‘A Horseman in the Sky’, In, Ambrose Bierce’s Civil War, Wings books, 1996. Bierce, Ambrose, ‘Chickamauga’, In Ambrose Bierce’s Civil War, Wings books, 1996. Sloane, Eric, The Diary of an Early American boy, Noah Blake 1805, Dover Publications, 2004. The Seattle Times, Martin Luther Kind, Jr. 2010, September 14, 2010, Wilkinson, Alec, ‘New York is Killing me’, The New Yorker, August 9, 2010, p. 26 Read More