United States Slave Song: "My Father, How Long?"

The song “My Father, How Long?” is a slave song from around 1865 that was documented in Florida (National Humanities Center). African Americans were legally slaves for white people in the United States for several centuries until slavery was abolished after the Civil War (Duiker 535). The African people were not always the devout Christians that the religious songs imply, however. For many years, Africans resisted conversion to Christianity and maintained their belief in their African ancestors’ “Old World religion" (Sambol-Tosco). By the 19^th century, though, most slaves had converted to Christianity to please their white masters (Sambol-Tosco). Doing so also offered the slaves a diversion from thinking about brutal conditions they had to live with and provided them with an outlet for hope. During the time that they were subject to abuse and forced to do grueling labor, slaves sang religious songs to pass the time and distract them from their depletion (Eastern Michigan University). Many of these songs were spirituals that praised Jesus and sought his guidance to help them through the hardships of slavery (University of Richmond).

Several phrases in “My Father, How Long?” show that the song was a source of hope for the slaves who sang it. The first stanza illustrates the misery slaves endured when it asks how long the “Poor sinner[s] must suffer” (National Humanities Center). The next four lines answer that question hopefully with, “it won’t be long.”  The song goes onto talk about their journey “home…where pleasure never dies” and where they will all “soon be free” (National Humanities Center). This refers to heaven, where the singers believed they would go to be free of slavery after they died. The slaves put their faith into the Lord to “call them home” one day and allow them to leave behind the harsh reality of their lives (National Humanities Center). African American slaves saw death as the only path to liberation because at the time, there was no other escape from slavery and nothing else to turn to for comfort except for the prospect of eventually reaching heaven. It is evident in this song that African Americans used religion, specifically Christianity, to help them get through lives filled with long days of intense work. Believing in an afterlife of pleasure and happiness eased the pain of an earthly life of mistreatment. The African American slaves of the United States are an example using faith to help cope with adversity; the consistency of religion and sense of equality in death that Christianity offered caused the slaves to turn to faith in the mid-19^th century.

Duiker, William J. and Speilvogel, Jackson J., Eds. World History. 5^th ed. Belmont, CA:

            Thomas Wadsworth, 2007.

Eastern Michigan University. “Slave Songs.” 18 Apr. 2011.

<http://edit.emich.edu/index.php?title=Slave_songs>.

National Humanities Center. “African American Songs Documented in Florida and

North Carolina, ca. 1865.” 18 Apr. 2011.

<http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/community/text3/religio

slavesongs.pdf>.

University of Richmond. “Songs in Slave Society.” 18 Apr. 2011.

<http://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/4844>.

Sambol-Tosco, Kimblery. “Slavery and the Making of America: The Slave Experience:

Religion.” Pbs.org. Online. 1 May 2011.

<http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/religion/history.html>.

Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will"

Leni Riefenstahl created the propagandistic movie Triumph of the Will in 1935 during Hitler’s rise to power. Hitler had been a fan of her previous work as a director and actress, and he saw the cinema as an efficacious medium for persuasion (Hagopian). In this movie, Riefenstahl portrays Nazi rituals and rallies from the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg (Wikipedia). It idolizes Hitler and dramatically depicts the German citizens’ love for their leader. Triumph of the Will presents an image to the German people of Germany's rebirth as a major world power led to glory by a great leader (Wikipedia). Hitler went to Riefenstahl to create this movie because it was an extremely effective form of propaganda that persuaded German people to believe in Hitler’s authority and magnificence.  The early 1930s were Hitler’s initial years as a leader, so he used awe-inspiring propaganda that made him appear godlike to help him attain his power.

 The movie starts off with Hitler’s descent in his airplane, through the clouds and over his supporters. He flies over a beautiful landscape and is met with applause from masses of people once he lands. Already, Riefenstahl characterizes Hitler as a God to his cheering subjects; he makes a journey down through a cloudy “heaven” and passes over all his glorious land. Throughout the movie, young men are shown as completely uniform in their salutes and repetition of orders. Hitler, however, is special—Riefenstahl often zooms in on his face to show both his joking demeanor and his serious pensiveness (Hagopian). Every move Hitler makes is met with cheering and adoration from the crowd, only idolizing him more (Hagopian). Thousands of troops watch as Hitler leaves a wreath at the World War I memorial, exemplifying Hitler’s status as the deliverer of Germany’s recovery and redemption (Wikipedia). By editing the movie to give the leader’s face so much attention and by showing the German people’s excessive adoration, Riefenstahl effectively makes Hitler the God of 1930s Germany (Hagopian).

In this movie, it is evident that the German people idolize Hitler to the point that he is essentially a God of a new religion: Nazism. The Germans put their faith in this charismatic new leader because they needed a savior from the debt and embarrassment they suffered from as a result of losing World War I.  The Treaty of Versailles left Germany bankrupt and humiliated, and the nation was financially unstable for years after the First World War ended (Duiker 648). Hitler gave the bitter German people hope of salvation and revenge, so they put their faith in him. The Germans needed to unite to overcome their hardships, and a new “religion” helped them do just that. Thematically, this shows that suffering and a craving for unification make people turn to faith and put their trust a leader, even if their faith is not religious in the traditional sense. The way German people used faith to cope with misfortune in the 1930s parallels the African-American slaves’ use of religion. Both groups of people put their faith in a prominent figure, whether it was Hitler or Jesus. The Germans hoped that their “religious” reverence of Hitler would bring them revenge and prosperity, just as the slaves hoped their dedication to the Lord would lead to heavenly salvation and freedom.

Duiker, William J. and Speilvogel, Jackson J., Eds. World History. 5^th ed. Belmont, CA:

            Thomas Wadsworth, 2007.

Hagopian, Kevin. “Triumph of the Will.” New York State Writers Institute. 18 Apr.

2011. <http://www.albany.edu/writersinst/webpages4/filmnotes /fns07n6.html>.

“Triumph of the Will.” Wikipedia. 1 May 2011. 25 Apr. 2011.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_Will>.

Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis"

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic novel and autobiography about a girl living in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In the book, Marji witnesses the fall of the Shah in 1979 and the subsequent rise of Islamic fundamentalism (Encyclopedia Britannica). Soon after, in 1980, Iran became involved in the Iran-Iraq War (Encyclopedia Britannica). Islamic fundamentalists persuaded young men to join the military force against Iraq by promising the “keys to heaven” to those who died in battle (Satrapi 99). Thus, a government and culture that valued religious martyrdom was established in Iran. The new Islamic fundamentalist leaders used fear tactics to force people into obedience, and it encouraged complete submission to both religion and the regime. Yet even though Islam became a prominent part of people’s daily lives, the government’s domineering methods of enforcing religion actually made some citizens question Islam rather than respect it.

In the two comic strips on page 99, Marji explains what happened to her maid, Mrs. Narsine. Mrs. Narsine had a fourteen-year-old son who was given a “key” to heaven. When asked what the object is, Marji’s mom replies with a confused expression, “a plastic key painted in gold” (Satrapi 99). The key is made of cheap plastic, only covered up with some fake gold paint to make it appear more attractive. This symbolizes a belief in the fraudulence of the Islamic regime, and for some, even in Islam itself; like the key, the fundamentalist authority was superficially appealing with its religious halo, but deep down, it was nothing but a deception and a lie. Mrs. Narsine goes on to say that though she has been a faithful Muslim her whole life, after the fundamentalists’ encouragement of her son’s death, she cannot have faith in anything anymore. The comic depicts Mrs. Narsine as distraught and sorrowful with upturned eyebrows and a wrinkled forehead, tears falling down her cheeks. Marji and her mother are wide-eyed with disbelief, confused by the atrocity of the regime’s propaganda. The characters' expressions give these two comic strips an air of perplexity, sorrow, and loss.

The strips from this page of the book distinctly tie in with the theme of faith because the characters at this point come to question religion. Mrs. Narsine has doubt about God and religion due to the cruelty of the fundamentalist regime’s propaganda. After witnessing such evil and fearing for the life of her son, she wonders whether the God she has always been so faithful to really cares about her. As shown in the looks on their faces, Marji and her mother are obviously confused by how the fundamentalists could get away with telling such lies. For all three characters, it comes down to the same question that challenges their faith: how can there be a God if so much evil and wrong exists in the world? Persepolis is evidence that experiencing misfortune, mistreatment, and wrongdoing can cause people to deviate from faith if their religion fails to provide answers or consolation. The Islamic Revolution, a time period characterized by the rise of a religious government, actually led many to challenge their faith in Islam due to the government’s extreme authoritarian nature.

"Iranian Revolution of 1978–79." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica

Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 18 Apr. 2011.

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/909256/Iranian-Revolution-of-1978-79>.

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003.

Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est"

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, 
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--

Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

____________________________________________________________________________________

“Dulce et Decorum Est,” which means “it is sweet and honorable,” refers to public opinion about self-sacrifice during World War I. Wilfred Owen, a British soldier who died a week before the armistice in 1918, wrote this poem contradicting the popular notion that dying in battle is righteous (Wikipedia). Owen at first entered the war in 1915 enthusiastic about his service; however, two horrific events changed his outlook on the war drastically. He suffered what is known as “shell shock” from having a trench mortar blow him into the air, causing him to land in corpses. He was also trapped German dugout for days, which traumatized him as well (Wikipedia and BBC). While recovering from shell shock at Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburg, Owen learned to channel his horrific war experiences into poetry (BBC). Soldiers who fought in World War I like Owen had to cope with trauma from conditions that were much more severe than those of previous wars. This is because the First World War was the debut of several technological advances that made fighting even more miserable; shell explosives, new artillery, and gruesome trenches produced a terrible war that led to a crisis in faith for many soldiers (Duiker 632).

This poem uses several sensory images to portray what war is really like for soldiers—it doesn’t give a romantic vision of gallantry and martyrdom. Instead, Owen talks about the “hoots,” or the sounds of shells flying in the air, that deafened the men. The soldiers “cough[ed] like hags,” which likens them to old women rather than the strong young men they were supposed to be. Though the “misty panes” of his gas-mask’s window, the speaker sees his friend drowning “under a green sea” of poisonous gas. He traumatically watches his friend die, “guttering, choking, [and] drowning” from the chlorine gas (Roberts). Owen does not spare any gory details about the brutality of the war. He instead writes about its realities: the shells’ constant “bangs,” the disgusting conditions and smell of the trenches, the corpses of fellow soldiers (Fussel). In the last lines of the poem, Owen ridicules society’s “high zest” for the glory of fighting. He says that if people truly knew what war was like, they would not encourage the “innocent,” their children, to seek an honorable death in battle. Owen quotes Horace in the last two lines of Latin, saying that the Roman poet’s ideal of bravery is a lie; he stresses that it is in fact not sweet to die for one’s nation (Roberts).

Owen’s war experience led him to lose faith in his society’s popular beliefs about war. At first, Owen entered the war optimistic and excited to serve his country (Wikipedia). However, after going though several traumatic incidents in the trenches, he had a change of heart. The brutality of war’s true nature, not a romanticized version of battle such Horace’s depiction, caused Owen to stray away from the ideals his country had instilled in him before his service. The warfare of World War I was unlike the combat of any previous war because of its trenches, gas explosives, and machine guns (Duiker 632). After witnessing such monstrosities and the death of his fellow servicemen, Owen was unable to believe in his culture’s reverence for the glory of fighting. This poem exhibits a crisis of faith in national ideals through horrifying images that challenge the popular conception of war’s righteousness. The crisis of faith that the characters of Persepolis go through during the Iranian Revolution is similar to that of the soldiers of World War I because both come to question their belief systems after experiencing a betrayal of trust. In Persepolis, the government deceives Mrs. Narsine by pretending to have pure, religious motives; in reality, the regime was attempting to persuade her son to go to war against Iraq by telling him he would supposedly die in the name of God. Likewise, Owen felt his society lied to him by telling him stories about the glory of war. He then could no longer trust his society’s belief system and lost the faith he had in his country’s values.

Duiker, William J. and Speilvogel, Jackson J., Eds. World History. 5^th ed. Belmont, CA:

            Thomas Wadsworth, 2007.

“Dulce et Decorum Est.” Wikipedia. 1 May 2011. 20 Apr. 2011.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulce_et_Decorum_est>.

Fussel, Paul. “The Trenches—What They Were Really Like.” Pbs.org. 18 Apr. 2011.

http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/historian/hist_fussell_03_trenches.html>.

Owen, Wilfred. “Dulce et Decorum Est.” 1917.

Roberts, David. “Wilfred Owen: Dulce et Decorum Est.” Out in the Dark. Saxon Books:

1998. Online. <http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html>.

Raphael's "The School of Athens"

Raffaello Sanzo da Urbino, more commonly known simply as Raphael, painted his famous fresco The School of Athens in 1510-1511 during the Italian High Renaissance (Beckett 128). Raphael painted the fresco in the Vatican for Pope Julius II, and it remains there today (PAVM). The Renaissance era in which he painted The School of Athens was marked by a break from religious medieval values and an affinity for classicism, especially in art (Encyclopedia Britannica). The word "Renaissance" literally means “rebirth,” symbolizing the revival of classical Greek and Roman principles. The emergence of a more humanistic and individualistic worldview also characterized the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Europe. Economically, life became more secular with the development of a rational money-credit system and European exploration in the West (Encyclopedia Britannica). Interest in education, particularly about nature and humans themselves, grew during this cultural and social Renaissance (Encyclopedia Britannica).

The School of Athens exemplifies several of the main Renaissance values. Perhaps the most obvious is its portrayal of classicism through the painting’s arches, classic philosophers, and harmony in its composition. Plato and Aristotle, famous Greek philosophers, are the focuses of the painting because of their central position (Beckett). Raphael painted several other great thinkers in his masterpiece such as Socrates, Euclid, Ptolemy, and Zoroaster, emphasizing the importance of knowledge (PAVM). Pythagoras, at the bottom left, also represents education and intelligence with the celestial globe he is examining (Beckett 128). The words “Causum Cognito” (“Knowledge of Causes”) above the painting stress learning and potential (Wikipedia). Rather than just accepting the will of God as an explanation for the unknown, people started to investigate the natural world. Raphael painted each person with different stances, expressions, and clothing, demonstrating the Renaissance value of individualism. The School of Athens is a depiction of human capability, uniqueness, and contribution, not religious reverence. The fact that two intelligent people are the vanishing point, not God, symbolizes the Europe’s straying from religion because prior to the Renaissance, all medieval art had a strong religious focus. This work of art shows Europe’s deviation from complete devotion to God in its recognition of human achievement and nonreligious philosophy. The School of Athens is a tribute to the accomplishments of talented people; the very fact that the central focus is not God, but rather man, demonstrates a decrease in religious dominance after the Medieval period’s devout faith in the Christian Church (Duiker 339).

This painting fits in thematically with the other works of art because it is a historical example of a cultural separation from religion. However, it differs from the rest because the change in faith was not born out of pain or some kind of suffering. During the Renaissance, it was a positive influence—an influx of knowledge and philosophy—that caused Europeans to stray from their religious piety. In contrast, “Dulce et Decorum Est” exhibits a crisis of faith due to the horrors of war, and the characters of Perspolis challenge their faith because of the Islamic regime’s corruption. All three works are similar in that they express a deviation from faith. However, Raphael’s painting varies from Owen’s poem and Satrapi’s novel because the historical moment that inspired it was one of education and rebirth, not of hardship.

Beckett, Sister Wendy. The Story of Painting. DK Publishing: New York, 1997.

Duiker, William J. and Speilvogel, Jackson J., Eds. World History. 5^th ed. Belmont, CA:

            Thomas Wadsworth, 2007.

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2011. <http://www.vatican-patrons.org/raphael.htm>.

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<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/497788/Renaissance-art>.