Yi 1 Jacob Yi Captain Hampshire English 111, M2 8 March 2022 Frozen Memorialization Pictures, first-hand accounts, and reactions can captivate an audience. Promoting feelings of happiness, anger, rejoice, and even helplessness. Looking at two traumatic and compelling accounts, artist Neil Young and polish poet Wisława Szymborska recount their reactions to the Kent State shooting and the tragic events of September 11 respectively. Young portrays the horrors and reactions to the Kent State shooting in a song while Szymborska reimagines the graphic details of the jumpers on September 11th, 2002. Both Young and Szymborska accomplish this by providing an authentic/lifelike imagistic view to put the audience in a paralyzing dilemma. In accentuating this numbness, they can spotlight the sense of helplessness in their memorization while also sending a message of commemoration. In reaction to the Kent State shooting, Young talks about the horror that took place in the form of the song “Ohio.” Young pushes for this sense of comradery, an almost “us,” versus the social system, and a call to action. Young does so by using words such as “we,” and “us.” For instance, “Tin soldiers and Nixon coming down / We’re finally on our own” (Young, 1-2). This suggests a sense of unity as the “Tin soldiers,” (Ohio’s National Guard) are coming to stop the protest. Saying, “We’re finally on our own,” implies that the soldiers are not coming to help, rather the opposite and all they have to lean on is each other. This notion of unity and comradery combined with Young’s projection of horror amplifies and creates the feeling of resiliency against the world. Especially when the world, Ohio’s national guards, is supposed to protect the Yi 2 innocent students. However, this “battle” is unfairly met with destruction. Young further reinforces this when he says how the soldiers are “cutting us down” (Young 6). Once again, he uses words like “us,” to show that strength in solidarity. Like helpless trees almost, “cutting us down,” imagining the innocent students who were murdered by the soldiers. Directly after this, he proposes a question: “What if you knew her / And found her dead on the ground / How can you run when you know?” (Young 6). These rhetoric questions really challenge the audience, putting them in that frozen state. Trying to inspire an emotional and personal, angry reaction to try and call them to action. Young is not looking for an answer rather is trying to emphasize the point that their deaths were unjust and helpless. Building up this sense of unity and then immediately crushing it by exemplifying their collapse from an unfightable force adds to that helplessness that is experienced. Throughout the song, Young repeats the phrase “4 dead in Ohio.” The 4 dead in Ohio represents the four unarmed students who were shot and killed while protesting the Vietnam War. In repeating this phrase over and over Young is trying to get the audience to recognize the significance and make it more memorable. When the audience looks back at the song, the one phrase, the one takeaway will be the “4 dead in Ohio,” because of Young’s repetition. Similarly, Szymborska communicates a similar message however does so in her poem “Photograph from September 11.” In this poem, she describes the photograph taken of people falling from the World Trade Center. She is able to prolong an event that in real-time takes place in half a second. By extending this specific moment in time, she can emphasize the helplessness they experience as their belongings/ life leaves them. The horror of knowing that once you jump, there is nothing that can be done to stop the inevitable. And what makes this situation even more demoralizing and helpless is knowing that jumping was a choice, since the building was on fire Yi 3 and on its way down. She describes the people who fell or jumped to their deaths, as there was no escape after the burning building: “They jumped from the burning floors/…higher, lower” (Szymborska, 1,3). In stanza 4, Szymborska, in a very tangible way, describes how the jumpers have “enough time / for hair to come loose / for keys and coins/ to fall from pockets.” This descriptive imagery paints a clear image of the people falling yet when at the first-hand account; it would be difficult to notice. It is as though, as they are losing their belongings, they are also slowly losing themselves as they approach death. But Szymborska halts them mid-air and cuts off the poem by not adding a “last line.” In the final stanza, Szymborska writes how “I can only do two things for them / describe this flight / and not add a last line.” This presents that paralyzing feeling where not much can be done. The audience is left with this traumatic image, and nothing can be done but loathe it. By not finishing the poem, by not showing their foreseeable death, Szymborska puts more emphasis on the actual fall and dissent, making it much more memorable. There are many ways to memorialize. They can take the form of art, statues, writings, songs, etc. After analyzing both Young’s and Szymborska’s pieces of work, both tie into this unique frozen memorialization. They both take a specific tragic moment, a picture, and are able to embrace and accentuate their point through their respective literary techniques. Both pieces of work are quite short however a lot can be taken from their memorialization. Many times, when things are memorialized, it is usually over a course of events, about a specific person, or something that had a dramatic effect on history. However, here both Young and Szymborska memorialize a picture that can be depicted as a frozen moment in time. Szymborska really sticks to this pause in a reality where she depicts the jumpers as still “within the air’s reach” (Szymborska 14). Young sings about his reactions to the photos of the Kent State shooting and Yi 4 depicts the frozen moments. He sings about the strength in togetherness and unity that the protesters embody while the national guard opposes them. In doing so he is trying to evoke emotions and a call to action. Szymborska memorializes by highlighting the subtleness [talk about this more in the second body paragraph] in the fall by creating a pause in reality. Both Young and Szymborska have their own ways of depicting their frozen memorialization to show and create a more memorable moment in time. As mentioned above, Young accomplishes this by repeating the phrase “4 dead in Ohio.” On the other hand, Szymborska cuts her poem short before the jumper's death to stress the significance of her memorializing their lives fading away yet have not reached the ground yet. So how do Young and Szymborska want their audience to commemorate? Firstly, both authors pay their respects by acknowledging and describing the details and effects of two sensitive and tragic events. Trying to spotlight the issue or tragedy from their distinct perspectives. Young creates this powerful message, a call to action, to inspire more awareness of the lawless acts of the Ohio national guard. His song incites strong emotional reactions, trying to personalize the unjust killings of innocent lives. He is not trying to stir up any more unnecessary violence and chaos rather add awareness to the American people to be alert and stand against inhumane acts. That feeling of helplessness and numbness is a feeling that Young portrayed so that Americans should never feel that way from the protectors of their country. At first glance, Szymborska’s poem can be difficult to understand how we should commemorate as an audience. However, Szymborska cleverly cuts off the jumper’s death at the end of her poem in order to underline the paralyzing feeling that September 11th should leave behind. There is no call to action, nothing here to rejoice, instead Szymborska wants the audience to recall just how devastating it was, especially for the jumpers themselves. With such a large-scale tragedy, it is Yi 5 easy for the jumper’s decision to jump to go unrecognized. Choosing to jump out of a 110-story building as an option only makes you wonder about the horrific predicament that they were experiencing. Szymborska highlighted their fall, making sure that it went unnoticed since the event was such a huge tragedy. Analyzing two pieces of work, two different events, similarities can be drawn. Both Young and Szymborska through their own unique ways are able to communicate how the description of traumatic events can paralyze the audience leaving behind a helpless taste. Both memorialize these tragic events as a frozen memorialization. Young begins the song by establishing a sense of unity among the people versus the social system then describes the horrific events that resulted. Szymborska writes about the photograph taken of the jumpers from the world trade center. Taking an often-overlooked event and slowing it down to show the jumper’s life slowly fading away, leaves the audience paralyzed. Along with their memorialization and commemoration, the audience too can commemorate. Yi 6 Works Cited “Neil Young – Ohio.” Genius, https://genius.com/Neil-young-ohio-lyrics. Szymborska, W. (n.d.). Fotografia Z 11 września. Babel Web Anthology. Retrieved March 30, 2022, from https://www.babelmatrix.org/works/pl/Szymborska%2C_Wis%C5%82awa1923/Fotografia_z_11_wrze%C5%9Bnia/en/5563-Photograph_from_September_11 Documentation Statement I looked at C4C Naomie Pawlikowski’s work cited to make sure I had done it right. I also used Grammarly to correct grammar errors. No other help was received.
