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I DREAMED I SAW JOE HILL LAST NIGHT--BIOGRAPHIES

ESSENTIALS

WISE WORDS

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself--and you are the easiest person to fool."

 

--Richard Feynman

READINGS

CURRENT WORK

PAST

SIMULATIONS

Some words from Manny Calvera (Grim Fandango)

"Run, you pigeons, it's Robert Frost!"

JOE HILL

Joe Hill was born in Sweden in 1879 as Joel Emmanuel Hägglund and emigrated to the US when he was 23. When he arrived in the US he took a job as a spitoon cleaner in a bar in New York City. After being exposed to the poverty in New York and the massive economic inequality, he became disillusioned. His story is the story of the American Dream denied. By the time he moves to Chicago he becomes blacklisted for attempting to start a union. He then changed his name to Joe Hill and continued moving West. He joined the Wobblies workers union and wrote many rebel songs for them. Then at some point on January 10,1914, he was shot in the chest by a man he refused to identify. Due to his chest wound he was accused of taking part in a robbery that occurred the same day he was shot. After a questionable trial, he was found guilty and executed by firing squad on November 19, 1915.

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His tragic life is reminiscent of Alexander Hamilton, another immigrant and American hero. One could imagine that Joe Hill’s personality would be similar to the personality of Hamilton, an intelligent, headstrong, ambitious man. He wanted to rise above his past and at the time the only way he could do that was through unions and protests.

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I enjoy the idea of Joe Hill being played to embody Alexander Hamilton because although they have similar backstories and personalities their ideologies are completely opposed. Hamilton was the founding father who made the American economic system the way it is and I think it would be interesting to have Joe Hill be a more modern but ideological opposite to him. Also, the two show two sides of the American Dream, Hamilton shows possibly the best outcome of the dream while Joe Hill shows the American dream denied. Hamilton became the second most powerful man in the United States while Hill remained a lowly worker up until his execution. Hill and Hamilton have similar backstories; both lost their parents; both had life threatening diseases early in their lives; and both emigrated to the United States through New York. So I see them being very alike. 

 

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