Horrified People's Blood Is in the Streets

963 Words2 Pages

“Come and see the blood in the streets,”(1/5 voices). Neruda once wrote this line at the end of his poem “Explico unas cosas” (I’m Explaining a Few Things), to explain the effects of the Spanish Civil War on the people of Spain. Spain was under the dictatorship of Fransisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War, which lasted from 1936 to 1939. The war caused much distain on the land and the people of Spain. Artists portray gruesome events by getting the reader to feel the connection between what they are viewing and the disruption of peace, only telling the reader certain elements of the war, and giving the reader a very clear image in their mind of what happened during the war.
Some similarities between Neruda’s poem and the video are that they both tell a story, they both explain that there was an criminal attacking the country, and they both have similar beginnings. Both mediums show the progression of the war. In the video, the creator has a major tonal change happen. As Neruda is talking you hear the calm, pleading tone of his voice, then the dramatic change happens and Neruda is practically shouting, forcing the viewer to listen to what he has to say. While this is happening, images are also changing, from everyday life of families, markets, and smiling children, to dead bodies, people crying, and women learning how to use a gun. Similarly, Neruda shows this change in his poem when he says, “My house was called the house of flowers, because in every cranny geraniums burst…/And one morning all that was burning…” (Voice 4, voice 11). Both artists shifted the reader from the feeling of happiness to the feeling of dreaded despair, a feeling which forces you to suffer through the terror that was the Civil War of Spain. Another sim...

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...ne was fighting back with whoever they were fighting with. All these differences help the reader to understand the Spanish war and process the facts about the war better than they would have without the differences.
Artists portray gruesome events in many ways including poems and videos. Gruesome events are portrayed in similar ways and also different ways including what is put in and what is left out. Whether it be leaving out who started the war, telling the whole story, or emphasizing elements in different ways the artist clearly portrays the Civil War of Spain as a gruesome and horrifying event. Both mediums clearly show how life was before the war and how people have been hurt. Both artists give the reader a sense of how the war affected everyone in Spain and eventually give the rest of the world a reason to “come and see the blood in the streets”(1/5 voices).

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