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English 1102: Hamilton and Writing

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Work, Sleep, Repeat

June 1, 2018 by Emily Moseley

by: Emily Moseley

In the Hamilton the Musical, there are lots of things going on, especially repetition. This musical is, well, full of songs that will naturally repeat lyrics at some point; however, Lin Manuel Miranda draws our attention to a few specific things in Act I with the ways he keeps coming back to them. The show is full of musical, verbal, and visual repetition. This is how he quickly establishes a relationship between the audience and the show because you become familiar with things the more you hear it. I think the rule is that you have to hear something seven times before you really memorize it; well, believe me, I have fully memorized some of these songs by now.

Image result for alexander hamilton gifs

And this starts with the very first song: “Alexander Hamilton,” probably the most famous of them all. It establishes so much in just four minutes but has a distinct tune at the very beginning that you can hear echo throughout the rest of the show. Every time this tune plays you know that a question is being asked just like in the first song:

“How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence, impoverished, in squalor grow up to be a hero and a scholar?”
-A. Burr

Just by hearing this throughout the rest of the show, you’ll know what to expect. Another cue Miranda slips in there would be the choreography during “My Shot.” In this song Miranda is showing the audience a direct contrast between Hamilton and Burr (which is a constant theme in the musical) as well as giving up some choreography to look for. This is like a visual vocabulary for the audience to have as the show goes on. With a story like this you can’t be too careful in noticing all the details because of how truly complex the show is and all the information it tries to unpack.

Image result for alexander hamilton gifs

The sheer timeline of the show is why it is so fast-paced and Miranda might have not been able to get everything into three hours if it wasn’t a hip hop musical with the ability to hide meaning in the dance moves. The dance move from “My Shot” repeats through the show letting us know that Hamilton knows what he wants and nothing can stop him from reaching his goals.

This is the kind of genius that Miranda hides in his show that adds so many layers to the meaning, and lets the audience learn things about the characters through repetition.

Filed Under: Blog Entry 1

Annotation Project Status Update

May 31, 2018 by Maxwell Jarck

By: Max Jarck

The due date for the first project is still over two weeks away but June 19th is approaching faster than I’d like to admit.  I’m still in the early stages of research but I’ve done enough where I feel comfortable giving an update.

I chose to annotate the beginning of the Pacificus-Helvidius Debate. The debate consists of argumentative essays written by founding fathers hidden by pen names. Alexander Hamilton is Pacificus while James Madison is Helvidius. The essays center around President Washington’s Proclamation of Neutrality (1793) and the constitutionality of the proclamation. Hamilton defends the proclamation with strong arguments, remember from the play how much emphasis is placed on Hamilton’s writing ability. Madison attacks the proclamation but with less skill than Hamilton’s defense. The debate was published as essays in a series of newspapers over the course of 1793.

When choosing a document, I read over most of the options and tried to see what had enough information in it that could be annotated and explained. I didn’t want to pick a document and then a few weeks later realize there was very little to annotate. I find the debate fascinating because it’s a constitutional debate by two of the founding fathers; two people who have intimate knowledge of the document because they helped write it.

Research has been well honestly its been a bit rough. There isn’t a surplus of material specifically about the debate but I am digging. I’m searching databases and looking up books. I requested a book from the GT library but it turned out to be unavailable. This was a minor inconvenience but not the end of the world. The research task is tedious and pulling together all this information into annotations is a challenge. I think that it will just take time and patience and a lot of reading to complete what seems like a hard task.

 

Pacificus (Hamilton)
Helvidius (Madison)

Filed Under: Blog Entry 2

Blog Entry 1

May 29, 2018 by Rahmel Bailey

“Immigrants we get the job done”

The Broadway musical Hamilton is a very unique piece, it is the story of Alexander Hamilton a founding father of the United States and is played by a cast of almost all people of color. However, the most interesting thing about the work is how the creator Lin Manuel Miranda relates Alexander Hamilton to himself and many people of color. In the play he shows Hamilton’s poor upbringing, growing up without a father, and his mother died at an early age. He didn’t come from a privileged home like many of his counterparts, he picked himself up from the bootstraps to rise to success.
One major emphasis that Lin Manuel puts on Hamilton to emphasize the relation to many people of color through showing that Hamilton was an immigrant. In a song from the musical, “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)”, one of the most notable lines from the entire play is “Immigrants we get the job done”. In this line, he references that historically immigrants have played a major role in the development and prosperity of the country, that the country is made of immigrants. Furthermore, I believe the meaning is meant to take a position on the rhetoric related to immigrants and make a claim that immigrants today are essential to the rise of this country and have been historically. The fact is, Hamilton was also an immigrant who came to America where he was given an opportunity to leave poverty and make a name, it led him to help defeat British forces in the Revolutionary War and serve on the cabinet of George Washington.
This was something I found intriguing because my family is made of immigrants and in society today immigrants and given a bad rep. It shouldn’t be this way, this connotation of immigrants is backward when compared to immigration around our country’s founding. I feel proud when hearing “ we get the job done” as do many others who can relate.

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Repetition in Act I: Moses Sghayyer

May 29, 2018 by Moses Sghayyer

Listening to Hamilton’s first act, I have come to notice how simple the lyrics for this musical are. It is really amazing how these simple lyrics come together to form an intricate play filled with several themes. The intricacy in this play comes not from the lyrics themselves but from the literary tools employed. The My Shot song was my favorite in the first act and it has all the literary tools that make this place such a success.

Repetition is used extensively throughout the musical. The phrase “I am not throwing away my shot!” is repeated several times in the My Shot song. The repetition of this phrase depicts one aspect of Hamilton’s personality. The repetition builds up his tenacity and restlessness. The repetition in this song also leads up to pivotal historical moments. The repeated call to “rise up!” in this song creates an environment of excitement and revolution on the stage. Burr’s personality is more cautious than Hamilton. Burr is not tenacious and restless but rather cautious and restrained. Lin-Manuel Miranda still decides to use repetition with this character. Just like Hamilton did in My Shot, Burr repeats his signature phrase “Wait for it” several times. Miranda wanted to clearly illustrate the contrast between Hamilton and Burr. The repeated “Wait for it” phrase goes on to show Burr’s indirect path to his goals. Hamilton is scrappy and is not waiting to take his shot, while Burr is more strategic observing on the sidelines and waiting for the best moment to pounce. The musical clearly depicts this difference between their personalities by repeating their signature phrases.

What impressed me about Hamilton’s first act is also the way a setting is vividly described and felt on the stage. During the Schuyler Sister’s song, the exciting feeling in New York due to the drastic changes happening at that time is also illustrated using repetition. “Look around, look around at how lucky we are to alive right now!” is repeated multiple times during that song. It made me feel the presence of the revolution on stage.

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Blog Entry One: Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

May 29, 2018 by Carol Rojas Ramirez

By: Carol Rojas Ramirez

There are many different themes that make up Hamilton’s first act. I think that one of the many literary methods that Lin-Manuel Miranda utilizes to get these themes across is repetition. We see this occur not just in individual songs but across multiple songs in the first act (and of course, in the second act). This form of repetition that expands across the entire musical links the different stories together in a way that provides the listener/viewer with a broad understanding of not just the period’s history but also a character study on Alexander Hamilton.

 

I know… I’ve read a lot of other blog posts and everyone is talking about repetition, but it’s something to be studied because it’s such an integral part of this musical. A lot of the repetition, as I mentioned, has to do with Hamilton’s characterization. In a broader sense,  we understand that this story is about an ambitious man who was his own worst enemy. Throughout different songs, we get an idea as to why this is true. We start out with the first song where we get the repetition of his name, but then we move on to songs like Aaron Burr Sir, and Satisfied where we get phrases like “Just You Wait”, which help the viewer/listener understand Hamilton’s visions of grandeur and his eagerness to be the best. He says this repeatedly, which shows us that he knows he’s smart and talented and that he could be the best, but it also shows us that he doesn’t know when to shut up about it. From the first couple of songs, we get the gist… Hamilton wants it all and he wants it now. And he’s going to tell everyone until they hear him. The fact that he is so arrogant with his opinions is what is going to lead to Hamilton’s downfall (we see this with the repetition of the line, “Talk less, smile more”). Here is a good place to state that “Just you wait” is a phrase that sets the tone for the foiling that will happen between Burr and Hamilton. While Hamilton uses that line, we hear Burr say, “Wait for it”, something that provides further characterization for both Hamilton and Burr.

All these lines, which are repeated throughout, help us understand Hamilton’s ambition and his overwhelming desire to become his own man. After immigrating to New York, Hamilton views the war as a personal problem. He is eager to fight for something that he wishes will be his. He wants a home, a family, and friends (he’s basically a millennial). All these elements provide insight into the quintessential story of an immigrant. The phrase, “New York” is mentioned multiple times in many songs including, My Shot, Alexander Hamilton, and Helpless. In many ways, it is providing a setting for the characters that is familiar to the viewer. It is easy to picture sailing ships coming towards the Statue of Liberty as well as to hum the familiar, Empire State of Mind song by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys.

As we will soon find out, however, Hamilton’s eagerness, the fact that he works himself to death (as mentioned throughout the song, Best of Wives and Best of Women), and that he never shuts up is what will be his downfall. His own ambition is his downfall. It is interesting because one of the many phrases we hear throughout the musical is “Rise Up” which is inspiring to hear, not just for the poor immigrants like Hamilton but also the colonies. However, this also provides foreshadowing of the rise and fall of a great man.

The thing is, a lot of the songs’ themes are not entirely about Hamilton nor the Revolutionary War but also touch on deeper issues such as gun violence, feminism, the Black Lives Matter movement, among others.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Blog Entry 1

Blog Entry #1 by Kelton Dawson

May 29, 2018 by Kelton Dawson

By: Kelton Dawson

 

During the first act I noticed that the tone and the repetition of how the character act where a major part in the acts mood for each scene and for the characteristics of each character. Many character showed repetition to portray the themes as ambitious and dedication.

Hamilton showed the most traits because he was the main character. Hamilton had the traits as a man who was dedicated at whatever he did. The use of repetition was a major technique for the character the use of how the girl kept repeating she was enough for him and that to not rush the process of writing, because he was always writing the lack of attention he was showing his family was draining the family which caused the household to start having complications. The line in “Look around, look around, at how lucky we are to be alive right now” is sung by Eliza and in “That Would Be Enough” to try to convince Hamilton to value the people around him, because times is very important in the world, but Hamilton only cares about the war more than anything in the song “non-stop”, Hamilton repeats the main line to Eliza to show her how much extra was needed to be done with the country because they were coming out of the revolution.

In conclusion the letter led to Hamilton and burr finally fighting and causing peace. With Hamilton success of his personal life caused him and his and family to become causes happiness and success to his family. Both of these characters are the prime example of two people with different goals and meanings to life as a whole. The song “Empire State of Mind” was a prime example in self- reinvention and making dreams cone true.

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Blog post #2: TK Chimedza

May 29, 2018 by Takudzwa Chimedza

For my annotation project, I chose the document about the Hamilton and Burr duel correspondence. I chose it because it felt like the most exciting part of Hamilton’s life, even though it would inevitably result in his death. The document were letters sent by Hamilton and Burr back and forth to each other. These letters would later on lead to the two having the duel. When starting the annotations, I chose not start off going line to line. Instead I would a couple of lines at a time so it would be easier for me to read and comprehend and then I would just dissect them down to the lines. As of right now I only have fives sources that are consistently helping with deciphering the text in the document. Of the five, I am getting the bulk of my information from two of the sources. These sources were wikisource and webster’s bibliography. As far as setting up the annotations, I only copied my annotations to google docs. I did this so I could just copy and paste the annotations to the document when everything was ready.  

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Burr as a Foil to Hamilton

May 29, 2018 by Grace Griggs

by Grace Griggs

 

In Hamilton Aaron Burr is written as a foil to Hamilton. In literary terms, a foil is a character whose differences with another character are used to highlight that character’s qualities. In this case, Burr’s similarities and differences with Hamilton are used to highlight Hamilton’s strong ambition and drive and how those affect his path in life.

Hamilton and Burr’s defining life experiences are almost identical. Both were orphaned at a young age, both graduate early from the same college, both fight under Washington and both pursue law after the war and become politicians. Despite these similarities, the two men’s attitudes and goals in life are at odds. This is immediately presented in the pair’s individual ‘mission statement’ songs, “My Shot” for Hamilton and “Wait For It” for Burr. Hamilton’s ultimate goal is to rise above his humble beginnings and build a legacy for himself. His strategy for this is to jump on any and every opportunity available to him and claw his way up from the bottom. In contrast, Burr’s plan is to keep all of his options open and wait until the perfect opportunity for him to strike. These different approaches define their actions throughout Act 1.

While Washington ignores Burr, he actively recruits Hamilton as his secretary based on Hamilton’s impulsive decision to steal cannons from the British army (“Right Hand Man”). The only time Hamilton’s impulsiveness hurts him is when he is sent home after he goes against Washington’s orders (“Meet Me Inside”). Apart from that, he is given is own command during the war (“Guns and Ships”), is chosen to represent New York at the Constitutional Convention and is chosen to be the Secretary of the Treasury (“Non-Stop”). At this point it is apparent that Hamilton’s relentless drive and impulsiveness have paid off for him, whereas Burr’s hesitation and unwillingness to pick a side have held him back.

 

It is clear that Hamilton’s approach has lead to his success both in his work and in war, but it has come at the cost of his personal life. While Burr is awed at Hamilton’s relentless work ethic, his wife Eliza begs to be involved in his life, asking for “a fraction of [his] time” (“Non-Stop”). Burr on the other hand, gives top priority to his loved ones. In “Wait For It” Burr says that Theodosia’s husband, a British officer fighting in Georgia, “can keep all of Georgia, Theodosia she’s mine”. To Burr, even the new nation he is fighting for is less important than having the woman he loves in his life.

Hamilton’s success at the expense of his personal life is countered by Burr’s relative lack of success and his happy family life. Both of these are directly due to the two’s differing goals and approaches to life. Burr and Hamilton are two side of the same coin, opposite results with the same starting conditions. Burr is still waiting for his moment and it is likely that his success will lead to Hamilton’s downfall.

Filed Under: Blog Entry 1

Characterization of New York in Hamilton

May 29, 2018 by Benjamin Payne

By Ben Payne

While listening to Act 1 of Hamilton, it was evident to me that one of the methods Lin Manuel Miranda used to connect today’s Broadway audience with the scene of 1770s New York was by presenting New York as a place where dreams are made true. Today, New York, like Los Angeles, is seen as the place to be for young people trying to make their place in the world. Want to be a world class chef? Go to New York. Want to be an artist? Go to New York. Are you an immigrant looking to start a new life in America? Go to New York. The same holds true with Alexander Hamilton, a young man looking to make his mark and do the million things he hasn’t done yet.

Since the first performance of the song “Alexander Hamilton” at the White House, Lin Manuel Miranda has been bent on convincing us that the life of Alexander Hamilton is one that embodies hip-hop. In “Alexander Hamilton”, the repetition in the background of “In New York you can be a new man” is reminiscent of Jay-Z and Alicia Key’s “Empire State of Mind”, a song about self-reinvention and the role of the city in making dreams come true.

Filed Under: Blog Entry 1

Blog 1 by Ye Jun Kim

May 29, 2018 by Ye Jun Kim

photo reference: hyperlinked to the picture

Blog Post 1

By Ye Jun Kim

As I have read and listened to thefirst act of the musical “Hamiltion”, especially listening to the scores, I noticed how the tone, word choice, and repetition of the characters affect the mood of the scene and the characteristics of those characters.

I could notice this the most with Hamilton, since he is the main character after all. In the beginning of the act, Hamilton seemed to be portrayed as a very ambitious man who cannot stay still. The lines “Just you wait” in Alexander Hamilton emphasizes and foreshadows to the fact the he does great things for this nation and he seems to proclaim that. He also appears to speak his mind in the song, “My Shot”. He is not afraid to speak to strangers about his belief of an independent nation, and even encourages them to “take a shot” with him and “rise up” and repeats those lines often throughout the song. These are only the beginning coupld of songs and even from this early on, we can see that he is a man of ambition and is proud to be himself.

Although being Hamilton’s ambitiousness contribute to the awareness of the seriousness of the nation’s independence, the people around him are often hurt, and you can tell that by the tone of the characters. In the song “That would be enough”, Eliza reveals that she is pregnant and Hamilton did not know about it until he came home. Although he doesn not directly express his fervent support for the war in this song, we can tell that Eliza was burdened enough by his amibitiousness that she was not able to promt him to come home. She says “I knew you would fight until the war was won” to show her understanding of his love for the country. Later on in the act, in the last song “Non Stop”, Eliza directly expresses that she is hurt by his blindness towards the family by saying “Helples..” and “Look around, isn’t this enough?”. In previous songs she repeats “look around” a lot, seeming to foreshadow how Hamilton fails to prioritize his importances.

The elements in the songs like the tone, word choice, and repetition, provide us clues to characteristics of the character, in most cases the main character, and either foreshadows or flashbacks to important events. Within a couple of songs, we were able to analyze Hamiltion’s aspiration for national independence, and how the people around him were affected by his belief.

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