Charles Cunningham's Glory: Song Analysis

Section II. Evaluation & Analysis/Interpretation of the Messages

To begin with, as aforementioned, in evaluating Glory, the fact that the film for which it was written, that is, Selma is a about the struggle against racism, with King pushing the Selma to Montgomery March for ensuring equal voting rights for the Black people in 1965, is a given. However, it has been said by the song writers, that is, Common and Legend, that the song was meant to make a reference to current events as well (Hammond, 2015). This is because they perceived Selma to be a reflection of the modern society as much as it was a story about the past (Hammond, 2015). They stated that while stating the truth about the society in this manner was a risky stand, because there

Cunningham explicates how Life Magazine, which became popular by showing the images of the poor America, behaved irresponsibly by showing images of rural United States, wherein people suffering in poverty were meant to elicit sympathy from readers. It was implied by these images that the poverty of the people in these images could be associated with economic and social hardships. In fact, it even edited and modified images to fulfill this purpose. Thus, the poor became “worthy” of this poverty, because their misfortune was to be blamed. However, the reasons for the adverse conditions were never really explained or critically analyzed. Thus, capitalism as the perpetrator of poverty and unequal wealth distribution was not acknowledged by the media, that is, Life Magazine. The agricultural crisis was the reason these people were destitute and even the photographer had meant the picture to represent this fact. In contrast, the magazine also published pictures and articles that ridiculed these poor for their “alleged promiscuousness or lack of intelligence” (Cunningham, 2002, p. 200), making the readers see that unhealthy, unfit, dirty, and lazy people also existed among the poor white folks. Thus, in spite of their suffering, they were disreputable for their behaviour associated with poverty. Notably, the time when these images were taken, that is the Great Depression, economic hardship was the natural state of existence for money, irrespective of a person’s race, social status, or cultural and leanings. However, this fact was conveniently ignored by the means, readers, who did not critically evaluate the media, and there was a division created, that is, the worthy and the unworthy poor. Notably, Cunningham also shows that racism that has thronged the nation for ages was