The Power of Influence in Writing
How can you write about something you don’t know or have never experienced? It isn’t an easy task. Most authors are influenced by what they see happening in the world or by close personal experiences. These influences lead a writer to create a piece of text that is emotional, thought-provoking, and encouraging change. In the three poems studied, ‘In Flanders Fields’, ‘No Shelter’, and ‘Television’, all three authors have created pieces of prose that relays to the audience what they saw or experienced and encourages future action to rectify the problems.
In the poem, ‘In Flanders Fields’, John McCrae illustrates in vivid detail the sorrows of war and the experiences of fallen soldiers. He wrote this poem because his close friend was killed in combat during the First World War. The speaker(s) of the poem are the dead soldiers. He shows a respect for the dead soldier by capitalizing the word ‘Dead’, which reveals his own personal respect for dead soldiers. The poem ends with the Dead encouraging the soldiers to carry on and continue fighting the enemy. One can assume that McCrae ended the poem with this plea because he personally believed the war should continue and those soldiers that died should not have died in vain. John McCrae took a personal experience and created an emotional piece of text that encourages the audience to keep fighting and to honour the dead by keeping their memory alive.
Roald Dahl’s poem ‘Television’ was written during the rise of popularity for the television. He saw that children were being babysat by televisions, not reading anymore and that children’s imaginations were getting smaller and less imaginative. In the poem, Dahl encourages parents to get rid of the TV and give their children books. He discusses how the television corrupts children’s minds, kills their imagination, and how their brains begin to rust. Dahl was read to by his own parents quite a bit, and so he personally believed it was important for children to read. He saw that children were losing their ability to use their own imagination! He pleads with the parents to throw the TV out and replace the television with books. The children may not like it at first, but they will grow so bored that they will eventually pick up a book and start reading. Dahl`s passionate plea reveals that he was influenced by what he saw happening during the rise of popularity after the invention of the TV.
Rage Against the Machine (RATM) was a band known for writing songs addressing political and social issues. They were highly influenced by the things they saw happening in society. In the song ‘No Shelter’, the band describes how society is being manipulated by big business and how badly society is being driven by greed and money. RATM compares the influence of mass media over the general population to the concept of war: ‘There’ll be no shelter here!/The frontline is everywhere.’ RATM doesn’t explicitly say to fight against the media and big business. They use a sort of rhetorical argument to encourage people to stand up to the media and big business by saying,
American eyes, American eyes
View the world from American eyes
Bury the past, rob us blind
And leave nothing behind
Just stare
Just stare
Just stare
Just stare
And live the nightmare!
Through this style of reverse psychology, RATM is trying to encourage the audience to stand up against the mass media and big business. They allude to the idea that big business and the media steal consumers’ money and take the public’s attention off real world problems. RATM took what they saw happening to the American public and wrote this song to bring to light the problem with mass media influence and big business stealing money. Writing songs like this is a way for the band to vocalize their political views and opinions, and spreading them nationwide.
Through these three selected poems, the authors revealed how they were influenced by personal observations and experiences. In these texts, the authors used their emotional connection to the problems they saw and were able to plead with the audience to take some form of action against the enemy; whether the enemy was the media, big business, a dictator, or the television.
How can you write about something you don’t know or have never experienced? It isn’t an easy task. Most authors are influenced by what they see happening in the world or by close personal experiences. These influences lead a writer to create a piece of text that is emotional, thought-provoking, and encouraging change. In the three poems studied, ‘In Flanders Fields’, ‘No Shelter’, and ‘Television’, all three authors have created pieces of prose that relays to the audience what they saw or experienced and encourages future action to rectify the problems.
In the poem, ‘In Flanders Fields’, John McCrae illustrates in vivid detail the sorrows of war and the experiences of fallen soldiers. He wrote this poem because his close friend was killed in combat during the First World War. The speaker(s) of the poem are the dead soldiers. He shows a respect for the dead soldier by capitalizing the word ‘Dead’, which reveals his own personal respect for dead soldiers. The poem ends with the Dead encouraging the soldiers to carry on and continue fighting the enemy. One can assume that McCrae ended the poem with this plea because he personally believed the war should continue and those soldiers that died should not have died in vain. John McCrae took a personal experience and created an emotional piece of text that encourages the audience to keep fighting and to honour the dead by keeping their memory alive.
Roald Dahl’s poem ‘Television’ was written during the rise of popularity for the television. He saw that children were being babysat by televisions, not reading anymore and that children’s imaginations were getting smaller and less imaginative. In the poem, Dahl encourages parents to get rid of the TV and give their children books. He discusses how the television corrupts children’s minds, kills their imagination, and how their brains begin to rust. Dahl was read to by his own parents quite a bit, and so he personally believed it was important for children to read. He saw that children were losing their ability to use their own imagination! He pleads with the parents to throw the TV out and replace the television with books. The children may not like it at first, but they will grow so bored that they will eventually pick up a book and start reading. Dahl`s passionate plea reveals that he was influenced by what he saw happening during the rise of popularity after the invention of the TV.
Rage Against the Machine (RATM) was a band known for writing songs addressing political and social issues. They were highly influenced by the things they saw happening in society. In the song ‘No Shelter’, the band describes how society is being manipulated by big business and how badly society is being driven by greed and money. RATM compares the influence of mass media over the general population to the concept of war: ‘There’ll be no shelter here!/The frontline is everywhere.’ RATM doesn’t explicitly say to fight against the media and big business. They use a sort of rhetorical argument to encourage people to stand up to the media and big business by saying,
American eyes, American eyes
View the world from American eyes
Bury the past, rob us blind
And leave nothing behind
Just stare
Just stare
Just stare
Just stare
And live the nightmare!
Through this style of reverse psychology, RATM is trying to encourage the audience to stand up against the mass media and big business. They allude to the idea that big business and the media steal consumers’ money and take the public’s attention off real world problems. RATM took what they saw happening to the American public and wrote this song to bring to light the problem with mass media influence and big business stealing money. Writing songs like this is a way for the band to vocalize their political views and opinions, and spreading them nationwide.
Through these three selected poems, the authors revealed how they were influenced by personal observations and experiences. In these texts, the authors used their emotional connection to the problems they saw and were able to plead with the audience to take some form of action against the enemy; whether the enemy was the media, big business, a dictator, or the television.
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