Kenneth Burke Language As Symbolic Action Summary

"Man is the symbol-using (symbol-making, symbol-misusing) animal, inventor of the negative (or moralized by the negative), separated from his natural condition by instruments of his own making, goaded by the spirit of hierarchy (or moved by the sense of order), and rotten with perfection", this is definition of man presented in Kenneth Burke’s essay Language as Symbolic Action. Burke was a renowned philosopher and literary theorist, who in his work explored how mankind's use of language and symbols to communicate separated man from the rest of the animal kingdom. The final two clauses of his definition of man “goaded by the spirit of hierarchy and rotten with perfection” are particularly relevant to this paper. Burke’s assertion that mankind is drawn to order and status is evidenced by mankind's incessant need to establish titles signifying rank. Furthermore, every society exhibits some form of social stratification driven by status, race, ethnic background, religion etc. We often then see the establishment of a dominant and authoritative group and conflict emerges from the inherent inequalities such a system imposes.

While there is no denying that man's success and progress in the

world is the result of lofty goals and ambition, Burke proposes that mankind's ambition was also something to be feared. To support his theory, Burke refers to the ideology of the Nazi's as the embodiment of man's ambition and desire going awry. Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime adopted extremist, anti-semitic views concerning race and believed themselves to be the “master race”, a concept which entails one group is inherently superior to others and are rightfully entitled and justified in exerting their will onto their lessers. When the Nazi Party came into power in 1933, they had no qualms about exerting their will and embarked on a mission to purify Germany and establish a state consisting of solely pure, white Aryans. They then proceeded to perpetrate one of the most heinous acts in the history of mankind, as well as inciting a second World War.
The persecution of Jews resulted in the systematic murder of over five million Jews and other “undesirable elements” over the course of twelve years. This genocide would later be known as the Holocaust. Edith Bruck, a survivor of the Holocaust effectively illustrates the atrocities committed by the Nazi’s in her personal account of her subsequent placement in the Nazi concentration camps in her book titled, Who Loves You Like This. The book chronicles Bruck’s life prior to, during and following her subsequent placement into the Nazi concentration camps. Concentration camps were initially detention centers for political opponents, but their usage broadened to hold “racially undesirable elements such as Jews, criminals, homosexuals, and Romanis.” Bruck’s family were not enemies of the Reich, her father was a poor butcher and the family held no political power or influence, they were detained simply as a result of their ethnic background and religion.
At the young age of just twelve years old, Bruck was subject to the harsh and dehumanizing conditions of life in various concentration camps for an entire year where witnessed the apathy and indifference of Nazi soldiers who either administered or were complicit in the systematic murder of Jews and other captives on a daily basis. Every day men, women and children were either outright killed or died from poor conditions. Bruck herself lost both her parents, in Auschwitz and Dachau respectively.
In 1945, Bruck would be freed from captivity when the Allied Powers claimed victory in World War II, bringing an end to terror of the Nazi regime. Allied victory was considered as a win for democracy and America was instrumental in ensuring this victory. Consequently, America became a symbol of democracy. America and much of the global community heralded human rights issues such as freedom of association and assembly, freedom of expression, freedom of belief and religion, and other unalienable rights as per the constitution. However, there is a great irony in this because in America there also existed and still exists a division of class and race not unlike that of Nazi Germany.
Hitler's autobiography Mein Kampf, reveals a deep admiration for America’s own system of social stratification and racist policies. As it turns out, the ideology of the” saviors” and “liberators” was influencing and emboldening the Nazi’s all along. Brent Staples of the New York Times notes that Hitler was “keenly focused on Jim Crow segregation laws, on statutes that criminalized interracial marriages and on other policies that created second-class citizenship in the United States.” It was Hitler's belief that “the result of all racial crossing is therefore in brief always the following: Lowering of the level of the higher race; Physical and intellectual regression and hence the beginning of a slowly but surely progressing sickness.” Interracial marriage to him was a sin and went against nature. Laws prohibiting interracial marriage in America would not be negated until 1967, twenty-two years after World War II.
America has a long and strained history concerning race, which will forever be a stain on the country's legacy. The first African slaves arrived in America in 1619. In the nineteenth century, when the rest of the world worked towards the abolishment of Slavery, America strengthened its slave institutions. In 1865, when the slaves finally gained their independence, it was to the chagrin of nearly half the country. These slaves, now free, would continue to be subject to discrimination to this day. “Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free” Ta-Nehisi Coates warns in his book Between The World and Me. Written as a letter to his son, Between the World and Me explores how race pervades everyday aspects of life for many Americans, but none more than the African-American community, who account for thirteen percent of the population.
Since the first arrival of Africans in America, the black community has contributed greatly to America's economy and culture.

The African American population is the second largest racial minority group in the country and is perhaps the most marginalized. Coates at times sounds angry in his book and rightfully so. Africans first arrived as slaves - beaten, battered, killed, raped and worked to death. Nearly four hundred years later, black men, women and children are still routinely beaten, battered and killed in spite of the supposed progress we have made during throughout those four hundred years. Violence is just a symptom of the real problem. Systematic racism is the most significant contributing factor to the poor and impoverished socioeconomic state of black communities in

America.
Taylor Campbell, writer for The Root reiterates Coates’ message:
Black people built this country. Our bodies fertilized this political experiment. And we still don’t have basic freedoms and protections that belong to us. Five-year-old Kodi Gaines’ mother was murdered in front of him in August. Officer “Slam” walked free in South Carolina. Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas and North Carolina refuse to restore voting rights to disenfranchised black citizens. Black immigrants are being detained and deported at higher rates than any of their counterparts. States continue to prioritize corrections spending over classroom spending, and black children are suffering the most as a result. Flint, Mich., still doesn’t have clean water.”