Essay Sample on American Protest Literature

This essay should not be written. Why? Because it is countless hours of seemingly meaningless research and writing. Is what this paper would entail if it were a protest. American protest literature is a form of communication that engages with its readers in an attempt to move its readers into action. The entire point of any sort of protest literature is to bring out the issue, explain why it is bad, and give a way that it can be fixed. American protest literature can come in many different forms such as paintings, movies, essays, etc. Similarly, social contract philosophies often take the form of an essay or government structured document. Social contract philosophies are an agreement between the ruler and the ruled that define the duties and rights of each party involved. The main goal of a social contract philosophy is to set standards for each to follow that seem the most just. American protest literature and social contract philosophies tend to have some similarities and differences between each other in order to convenience their readers of their objective and often go hand in hand. Rhetoric from both American protest literature and social contract philosophies can be both similar or different and help create a viable reason for protest literature to be valuable. 

John Locke’s “Second Treatise on Government” contains a lot of information about how he believes governments and its people should interact with each other. He also speaks on what roles governments play, for example, Locke says that, “where-ever law ends, tyranny begins,” this can be seen in more recent times as well (Locke 33). Locke uses rhetoric in order to convey a message to the readers: the idea that if there is no law then people will step over their boundaries and do whatever they deem necessary. For example, Diego Rivera's painting on the North Wall at the Detroit Industrial Murals depicts workers working extremely hard compared to before the great depression. You can see this by how the muscles on the workers are strained, their veins are showing, and through their facial expressions as well. These workers are working even harder than before in order to keep their jobs and not let their job be taken by another who will work even harder for less money. This is a prime example of what John Locke was trying to argue. Just after the Great Depression there were not that many jobs and anyone who was fortunate to have a job should have considered themselves quite lucky. Because there was such a shortage of jobs after the Great Depression many companies would single out specific people they thought would perform the best. Since the government was still recovering from the hit the economy had taken, they did not have much care for the way workers were being treated at their jobs, so the companies could choose the people who would overwork themselves for very little pay. Therefore, creating a tyranny of sorts because the government had not implemented any sort of law protecting the people against something like this. Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry Mural on the North Wall is a form of protest literature, protesting for John Locke’s idea that if there are no laws tyranny will prosper. 

In John Locke’s “Second Treatise on Government” he also explains what others should not do to each other. For example, he says that, “no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions” (Locke 29). Locke believes that since everyone was created equal by God that no one should have the need to harm another. Locke uses this rhetoric to expel a sense of unity for everyone to show that we are all the same. Unlike Kendrick Lamar who uses other rhetoric like, “dope on the corner. Look at the corner. Daughter is dead” to convey sadness throughout his listeners ("Sing About"). Lamar uses this rhetoric to bring out a sense of sadness from his readers. He does this to try and protest that even though we are created equally, as Locke says, we are still harmed by one another. In this case Lamar depicts a daughter of someone who has taken drugs and died on the corner of a ghetto. Lamar is protesting the ghettos as a whole because things like the daughter overdosing on drugs go on every day in the ghetto and it is so normal people do not offer their help. Which is harming one another because of many factors such as the person who sold the drugs, the people who got her on the drugs, and most importantly, and possibly the most to blame, the friends and loved ones that knew she was taking drugs and did nothing to stop or help her. All of those people have harmed her to the point where she died. Kendrick Lamar’s “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst” is a form of protest literature against ghettos and Locke's idea that since we are all equal we should not harm one another because clearly, we will still harm one another even though we are created equally. 

John Locke mentions ideas about the powers governments should have. For example, he mentions that “whoever has the legislative or supreme power of any common-wealth, is bound to govern by established standing laws” (Locke 31). Locke is saying that whoever holds the legislative power has a right or responsibility to create and enforce laws to protect their people. He uses the rhetoric to let his readers know that the government that they decided to follow should establish these laws to protect their people. He does this in hopes of bringing out a sense of trust out of the readers by associating them with their governments and their governments’ responsibilities. An example of why governments should create laws in order to protect their people can be seen through Stephen Crane’s “In the Depths of the Coal Mine.” In this work Crane protests the coal mines and consequently calls out the government for not doing their job. For example, Crane interviews one of the head workers at a coal mine and the worker says that “the hope of [the slate-pickers is to] one day [get] to be door-boys down in the mines; and, later, mule-boys; and yet later, laborers and helpers” (Crane 138). Crane has just been told by their guide that the “slate-picker” who are still in their “spanking” age have so many things to look for working in the coal mines. Essentially, they will spend their entire lives working at the coal mines. Crane agrees with Locke’s idea that the government should have and enforce laws. In Crane’s case he believes that the government should create laws to protect the children who are going into a very risky and dangerous line of work and they do not fully understand the risks that they are taking. Crane protests the coal mines that are using these children as a form of labor and subjecting them to such harmful conditions when they are barely able to understand simple abstract concepts. Crane’s “Into the Coal Mines” is protest literature agreeing with Locke’s idea that the government should create and enforce laws and in this case laws to protect the children.

Throughout the years there have been many Social contract philosophies and American protest literature that share similarities and differences in their rhetoric but ultimately, they contribute to protest literature’s value. John Locke’s ideas on how governments and its people should interact with each other, what others should not do to each other, and powers governments should have all have rhetoric behind them that draw out and evoke emotions within its readers that convenience the readers that is what should be done. These ideas and rhetoric used not only share similarities and differences within other protest literature such as the Diego Rivera’s North Wall Mural, Kendrick Lamar’s “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst,” and Stephen Crane’s “In the Depths of the Coal Mines,” but they also agree or refute those very ideas. There are much more similarities between social contract philosophies than there are differences. For instance, throughout Locke's “Second Treatise on Government” he uses a combination of rhetoric to instill different emotions in the readers to convince them more of his ideas. Just like Locke the others use the very same technique to get a much similar result, it may not be the same emotions that they are trying to evoke, but they are still trying to induce some sort of emotion in order to convince their audience of something or idea. This similar use in rhetoric is a valuable asset in protest literature. Contemporary texts, or just text, serve as valuable protest literature because they have the ability to not only tell a story, but to create this emotion within its readers that convinces the readers to side with their argument. Texts serve as an invaluable tool to many, allowing many to understand what is happening and easily preserve the same ideas for ages. Especially to protest literature texts allow for any sort of side to be shown in any range of detail extreme to vague. If it were not for the rhetoric in social contract philosophies texts in protest literature would not be as valuable as they are now and would not be able to convey the same meaning or hold the same emotion as they do now.