Explore The Theme Of Loss In Punk Rock John, Hotel Rwanda, By Michael Lee

to explore the theme of loss. This theme is shown in the texts, “Punk Rock John”, by Neil Hilborn, “Pass On”, by Michael Lee, “Hotel Rwanda”, directed by Terry George and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

During the poem “Pass On”, Michael Lee portrays this feeling of loss through the loss of his beloved best friend. He does this by talking about what to remember when searching for the lost and at number four he says “The day Steven was murdered everything that made us love him rushed from his knife wounds.” This quote shows that the poet has lost someone important and close to him and he is obviously devastated about it. Michael Lee tries to portray the idea of loss through the loss of his friend but also the purpose of this poem was

to help us understand that Michael Lee does not believe the loss of someone means that they’re gone forever. This is shown when the poet speaks about how he, “found Steven” in other people and when he says, “Eight, we are not created or destroyed, we are constantly transferred, shifted and renewed. We do not die. We pass on, pass on the life burning through our throats.” This poem is centred around the loss of people you love but these quotes show that the author is trying to show that we never truly are gone. The theme of loss is also evident all show the theme of loss whether it be the devastating loss of a loved one, life or the peoples dreams.

The feeling of loss is shown through the main characters eyes by the loss of life around him due to racism during the film, “Hotel Rwanda” Directed By Terry George. This film links to the text above as like it portrayed a theme of loss through the death of a friend, this film portrays the feeling of loss through the loss of millions of valuable lives. The loss of life can be shown in this text through quotes such as when Paul Rusesabangia says to George Rutaganda, “You seriously cannot think you can kill them all” and he replies with “And why not? We’re already half way there.” This shows the theme and amount of loss this film portrayed as killing half of the Tutsis is almost killing a quarter of the Rwandan population which is an extreme about of loss of valuable life. This purpose of Terry George using the theme of loss in this film is to show the horrors of how bad a genocide can be and also to show us how racism and segregation. This films purpose was also probably to show how we actually ignore the developing countries, don’t treat them as our equals and don’t particularly care as much about such a loss of life. This can be seen in quotes such as, “I think if people see this footage they'll say, "oh my God that's horrible," and then go on eating their dinners.” This text also links to the texts below as they also show this feeling of loss through the loss of a role model and the loss of the American dream.

The poem, “Punk Rock John”, also shows the feeling of loss through the poets loss of his role model who saved him from committing suicide.

This Text links to the texts above as like them the author experienced some form of a loss and learnt something from it. Also just like the first text, “Pass On,” by Michael Lee the poet believes that the dead are truly never gone. Neil Hilborn talks about how Punk Rock John saved him and how later he was murdered. This is shown when Neil says, “That first mosh pit was not a quiet conversation about suicide, it was Punk Rock John telling me, “Hey asshole! Don’t kill yourself!”” and later when the poet says, “But then some out-of-town skin dropped a guillotine knife blade into John’s skull. This shows both that he was the poets hero but was also tragically lost. The ending line shows the poets purpose of the text. It says, “As long as I can remember, I will hear him– he says, “kid, you’ll be fine.” This shows that even though this poem is all about loss, it can be overcome and loved ones are truly never gone as long as they are not gone from your memories. The point of this poem was to show that loss is devastating inevitable but can be overcome and that the lost loved ones will always be in your heart. The purpose is also obvious through the overall sad tone of the beginning of the text but the uplifting tone at the end. “Of Mice and Men”, the text below relates to this text as it also captures the feeling of loss although in a different way, through the loss of ultimate

dreams.

“Of Mice and Men”, the last text I have chosen to look at, also captures the feeling of loss just like all of the texts above. The theme of loss is also shown in the novella “Of Mice and Men,” by John Steinbeck through all the characters loss of their own American Dream. Steinbeck shows the the theme if loss throughout the novella through the loss of Lennie's, George’s, Curley's Wife’s, Candy’s and Crooks American Dream. This is shown through quotes such as Crooks saying, “I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads . . . every damn one of ’em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ’em ever gets it.” This shows that each person had their own American dream and all of them seem to unfortunately loss them. Steinbeck wants us to understand the real hardships of people during The Great Depression and what they truly had to go through including the loss of their own dreams. The purpose of this text can be seen throughout the novella by his use of putting stress on all of the characters failed loss of dreams and how lonely and sad they really were. Just like this novella the previous texts all also portray the overwhelming feeling of loss. These texts all link back to one another as whether is be the loss of life or someones ultimate dreams the texts show an extreme loss of something important to them.

Everyone experiences a feeling of loss in their lives but like most of the authors I believe things can be found again or are never truly gone in the first place. “Punk Rock John”, by Neil Hilborn, “Pass On”, by Michael Lee, “Hotel Rwanda”, directed by Terry George and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck all show this theme of a massive loss but also showed me that loss inevitable but you can push through.