The Murder of President John F Kennedy - Essay Example

Introduction United s historical affairs of have been remarkable with countless incidents. s of such events through the media pundits have confirmed to be the main source for our awareness of the past. With the sprouting conversational illustrations, these history writers have also even jobbed into this field to get profundity and acuity of historical incidents like the murder of President John F. Kennedy (JFK). Such efforts have been to provide exacting details of the real historical incident and also to expose how each incident act as "step stone" in constructing the so-called American dream. Various history writers have taken contrasting approaches in investigating the case of JFK's murder and the reasons behind it. Although, many of them surfaced with slanted hypotheses and responses, there has been no exact ending of the assassination of JFK. In the course of their studies however, they have significantly subjected the way the Americans think what had occurred during the JFK murder through their prejudiced interpretation similarly. Discussion Past sequence of events whether published or in cinema cover same the features - as they all are prone to the analyses of the history writers; the explanations of the whole story and incidents; naming of the hero and villain; and they all are predisposed to the common reception of the public. That's why, any sequential part of storyline is helpless without a hodgepodge of representation (or the communication) and the reception (of the communication) by the public. In its place there are some logicians who are vigilantly prejudiced in the curiosity of the psyche of the publics. Therefore these theorists are more worried about the past exactness and portrayals of the historical incidents - they are the same who consider themselves that are in charge of bearing a "great civilization" to the next generations. The countless films and published stuff created by them not only have created the resources of knowledge of the past but also a support to accept the incidents they present as our right inheritance. They maybe named themselves as the "makers" of narrative accounts but how do we evaluate their alleged "genuineness" One of the leading ways to evaluate is to study expert views regarding a specific event and then ponder on the end results of it. For instance, in Mark C. Carnes (1995) "Past Imperfect", the author summarized this very reality by spelling out a variety of past episodes evaluated by professional views. He interviewed sixty two renowned historians, press, and other establishment to remark on past movies that pat upon their field of skills. Convinced that past movies have become "a great storage area of past awareness in this U.S. of Amnesia," these professionals evaluate the movies' past exactness and scrutinize how their portrayals of past incidents and figures compare with modern historiography. However, through the professional views one can not only evaluate of the accuracy of the specifics represented in "selective past papers" but also whether the exact representation had strayed the interviewer's insight too. As said by Carla Rahn (Mark 1995, p. 60), though many academics have pursued the past stature of Christopher Columbus yet only the 1949 movie version by Frederic March looks like to fit the whole story relating to his personal life. In history movies therefore, past exactness is evaluated by the change in literary incident, transcendence of the legend into myth, analysis of the history as well as the strength of the history that may make the reality. Even though it's an observable fact that people who are not au fait with the history are liable to trust history writers to wean past information so as to re-enact the specifics and incidents (p. 64). Take the incident of JFK's murder for instance; several would believe that, Lee Harvey Oswald, is a psychopath and a nuts held guilty for JFK's shooting while there are others who are significant of the whole story and experiences adjoining the shooting. As David Lubin (2003), in his book named "Shooting Kennedy", got a different perspective regarding the specifics connecting to his assassination. In accordance with him, the past incidents close to the killing of Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald seemed alike because they are quite relevant to it. Following a "comparable" contemporary approach Lubin gives the justification of JFK's shooting. His observations are not only surplus to requirements but sometimes appear in isolation. He considered the media photographs, painting, and movies on JFK by contrasting them. His vision thus is an incorporation of 'art' and 'previous times' which does not make his narrative of incidents, similar to JFK's killing, advice-giving or even educational. For a mind his work is carefully planned to be corrective and "encouraged reportage" that does not seem appropriate for previous narrations. The images and portrayal of the incidents are at variance owing to his representation of the cultural portion of this specific incident. One of the specifying pretenses that Lubin wishes to represent is that after many years, after Caesar Augustus, JFK came out as a pulsating and respected President that the country yearned for. This information he discloses by contrasting a sequence of photographs and masterpieces of both JFK and Caesar. He also sketched JFK as an idyllic, and an illustration of a naive and sanguine America at time of political unrest. However, the death of JFK has not only crippled the whole America but also has been a private loss (Elizabeth 2005). Because of his acquaintances and grasp of the media, every national seemed to identify the President which has made his loss even more grief-stricken for them. But possibly the central part of the JFK shooting, in keeping with Lubin, is that Jacqueline Kennedy, carried on to play the wretched partner of Kennedy through media reporting. Her regular presence in the media not only goes on to sensationalize the public but also has made huge impacts on their perceptions (Elizabeth 2004). The public reflection that she ruled got civic compassion and in this very progression gotten their devotion to JFK (Elizabeth 2004). This particular explanation of the JFK killing splits the broad-spectrum suspicions that the Americans had built up against him (Elizabeth 2005). This reality can also be "itemized" by Art Simon's (1996) study of the same incident. Neither the United States' historical politics cannot be exemplified through "painting" nor can its seriousness be calculated by the extent of convolution innate in its political arrangement. Incidents take place not only in the political influence that lead the U.S. but also happen to its core evolutionary grit. Explanation of the past incidents must consider the various portions and, in particular, the reasons behind them. Little understanding restricts the period of analysis while surplus specifics becomes superfluous and stupefies the psyche of others. There isn't such thing as the correct quantity of the whole story. In reality, in his book entitled ""JFK," Dangerous Knowledge: The JFK Assassination in Art and Film", Simon sketches the past expansion of the "Warren Commission Report" and its judgment on the killing, and provides the opinion that JFK killing had been a scheme for assassinating the President. It has been a plot that is so enveloping that it wraps both the political influence as well as the community. At one side, the influence has been at odds amid the Conservatives and the Leftists (Peter 2000). The splitting up of the influence has produced great disbelieves among the people so that the official reasons - political justifications and the Warren Commission Report - seemed derisory in convincing the public inquest (Peter 2000). Actually it has been all through the inquest of the murder that the people and overall public have become responsive to the media pundits focused nationwide proclivity and how individuals in the political affairs took great advantages of this reality, in the midst of which JFK was one (Peter 2000). And on the other hand, biased association and understanding of the incidents of the JFK killing therefore has become similar to it, relying on the diverse political groupings, backgrounds, and societal rank. The bias nature of this case so split the political body. The Congressional accounts, reporters' narratives, and legal experts' work no more have "trustworthiness" in the public's perceptions. In its place it has been during this era that the American public became susceptible to the government's under given circumstances and approaches to reroute American public from critical political stratagems that impinge on them (Peter 2000). Simon (1996) thus worked against those undertaken by Carnes and Lubin who although provide no different hypothesis but lost in their approaches. Simon's approach reveals a political partiality towards the general people by representing the immoral and wicked stances of the administration which betrayed the U.S. citizens all through the days gone by. Not only has this but it been the administration which has been to blame for the failure of a huge plan for revitalizing the declining ranks of the U.S. nationals. What Simon (1996) in good time sought to present is the reality that the Kennedy's murder has led to a civilization of doubts not in favor of the U.S. administration. People has raised to doubt their administration owing to the lack of proof, "cumulative" stances of the administrators and the phony attempts to swerve their awareness from critical political plans that have lasting consequences on their lives. They have been taught a great period in American elected official who not only rule the mass media representation, like JFK did but also have the aptitude to prove to the public to go through the public policy that counteract their wellbeing. In this perspective it can be assumed that Simon's (1996) information on past narrative can be prejudiced not only for the political power but also towards the public. Whether the account is on movies, publishing stuff or papers, the power that is answerable for the report often become prejudice in the awareness of the party concerned. For this reason, in the course they produce a preconceived notion and reason for the incidents that has happened. One tendency that is oozed from the murder of JFK: "The discoveries start around Watergate and the great after effects of Chile and Cointelpro have shaped up public notice of the realities of affairs of state in the United States. We are at one of those instantaneous moments when a 'lucky' junction of incidents opens a pane and gives us an idea about the perfidies implicated in the struggle for state authority. It is more likely now for citizens of U.S. to be aware of the necessity for a new structure of political thoughts which logically places these massacres in a general point of view on U.S. political affairs" (Simon 1996). For this particular reason Simon's job can be interpreted as one of that middle-of-the-road historiography that affix a part to the riddle and assist the public to become conscious of the established political and societal customs at the time. Narrative accounts in the aforesaid perspective should reveal not only the reactions of the public or the political power but also the specifics and particulars that would let someone to form purposeful view of such incidents. JFK's murder has been one of the crucial instants in U.S. narrative accounts because it not only changed the way the public view the American leadership but it also commenced a new responsiveness amid the public to outline purposeful views towards the political influential and those concerned with shaping U.S. political affairs. As the incidents of the murder spread out, new credentials and movies have been brought in to the public stipulating them to make their own verdicts towards the particular case. Films, for instance, like JFK (1994), merely highlights on the still concerned people reactions towards President John F. Kennedy. These movies and documentary movies give the origin for outlining investigative "... form of public pluralistic attitude that grasps a state should be a home to every one, irrespective of their race, color, faith, and doctrine" (Burgoyne 1996, pg. 11). This has been the main spirit of a narrator Burgoyne's book titled "Film Nation" which makes use of five films to outline the progress and growth of American political records. Past movies, in keeping with the writer, are liable for articulating the narrative accounts. These movies are explicit and have a tendency to marginalize the particulars and information that every so often passed by the history writers. Subject such as racial backgrounds, sexes, and societal class contribute greatly in verifying the sort of view the public community has towards the past incident. Movies by revealing one or more portions of the same occurrence and particularly in JFK present an object story leaves someone with a self-intuition of the past incidents. Perhaps the salient feature of Burgoyne's sequence of events is the verity that since the U.S. States is media-oriented and appetite for media reporting and media-based beliefs, any past incident replicates their craving for information and movies that represent their views. They are in a sense that rules the mass media. When the killing of JFK occurred the public had been sensationalized by the reality that their much-loved leader had passed away (David 1997). To reveal the public people reaction, the media covered roughly all portions not from an 'objected standpoint' but rather skewed, particularly polished the feelings of the community people. This is for the reason that the U.S. community and Hollywood both has a profound level-headedness for rising the U.S. perception and individuality (David 1997). The JFK killing in this particular perspective too rebuilt the U.S. individuality. The American individuality, in relation to Burgoyne (1996), is innate in the societal animosities and challenges rampant at that point. To exhibit, Burgoyne (1996) sketches the reality that JFK the film reproduce the patchy culture that required responses and responsibility for JFK's bereavement. As the incidents spread out and the Warren Commission provides statements after statements, this individuality became even more multifaceted step by step. The media still remained one of the most reliable resources for revealing the "genuineness" in spite of of them being responsive to its foregone conclusion. Conclusion From the above discussion, one came to a conclusion that the U.S. citizens have always been helpless without the media for telling past experiences, whether it is published in paper or electronically waved. The media in contrast is in need of the history writers that scheme these past incidents. To exemplify the incidents and its literary impact of the JFK murder has been thoroughly considered. Various history writers have roofed this incident yet each has diverse analyses of the impacts. While Lubin give emphasis to the biased view, Simon puts forward an object analysis similarly. And likewise, Burgoyne (1996) presents a completely singular idea as he cracks down on the public reaction of the past incidents and its progress. Essentially, any past progress in the social order that mainly bank on the media for genuineness, specifics and verdict would confidence the media protrusion in excess of any other resource for rebuilding, scheming, and shape objective results of any past incident. In the context of JFK, a narrate of the above-discussed evaluation shows that JFK's murder had to do more with media treatment and its literary influence on the general public than the real incident's influence itself. As a result, past proof becomes less genuine through media involvement yet; the general people have a tendency to trust its existence for verification of the specifics and facts. References: Mark C. Carnes, ed. Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies. H-Film: H-Net Reviews, November, 1995. "Christopher Columbus: Two Films," (with William D. Phillips, Jr.). In Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies. Edited by Mark C. Carnes. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1995, pp. 60-65. "Shooting Kennedy: JKF and the Culture of Images," at Yale, Harvard, Metropolitan Museum, National Gallery of Art, Andy Warhol Museum, NYU, University of Wisconsin, and other venues (November 2003-May 2004). Simon, Art. JFK, Dangerous Knowledge: The JFK Assassination in Art and Film. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996 Elizabeth, Klaver. Autopsy and the Social: The Case of John F. Kennedy, Sites of Autopsy in Contemporary Culture. New York: State University of New York Press, 2005 Elizabeth J. Natalle. "Jacqueline Kennedy: The Rhetorical Construction of Camelot," in Inventing a Voice: The rhetoric of American first ladies of the Twentieth Century. M.M. Wertheimer, ed., (Lanham, MD.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004) Peter Knight. Plotting the Kennedy Assassination. Conspiracy Culture: From the Kennedy Assassination to 'The X-Files'". London and New York: Routledge, 2000 P. David Marshall. Tracing the Meaning of the Public Individual. Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997 Burgoyne, Robert. Modernism and the narrative of nation in JFK. In Vivian Sobchack (ed.), The Persistence of History: Cinema, Television, and the Modern Event. New York: Routledge, 1996. Read More