Indian culture, a series of preclusions from failing, stumbling, and falling short, prevents anyone from evading its rigid guidelines and deviating from the societal norm. It enforces strict punishments for those who do not hold the values of diligence, patience and impartiality, and shuns those who do not perform above standards on their first attempt at a task. Just as the Indian culture values dedication, forbearance and neutrality and devalues recklessness and overambition, Vice President Aaron Burr, in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, esteems these same ideals. In his musical, Miranda highlights various key events in Hamilton’s life and legacy, but none is more important or divisive than his rivalry with Aaron Burr. Throughout the musical,
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In the musical, Burr sings “if there is a reason I’m still alive/When ev’ryone who loves me has died/I’m willing to wait for it,” implying that patience is one of his key ideals, and he is prepared to wait to understand what his real purpose in life is, and just like me, he is not willing to take risks for possible success (91). The commonality between Burr and me that accounts for this similarity is the type of culture we were raised in: Burr was born in an affluent family, with his father being the president of a college, and I was raised in a strict Indian family. Our cultures and upbringings came with numerous preclusions against failure and blundering and opposed the notion of having a second attempt. There are some occasions when these bounds set by a culture limit one’s potential, like the instance when Burr was not in “the room where it happens,” where the Hamilton’s financial plan was being discussed (187). Just as Burr missed opportunities to witness the negotiation of Hamilton’s plan, I have missed many chances in dread of failure, due to the bounds that my culture has imbued in me. In contrast, Hamilton has no such restrictions, and seems to write “day and night like [he is] running out of time,” which shows his brash and hasty lifestyle, a way of thinking that both Burr and I denounce (137). Hamilton’s rashness is a trait that both Burr and I do not possess, as our …show more content…
By realizing these interconnections and distinctions between the founding fathers as depicted in Hamilton: The Revolution, mankind can begin to comprehend the values and ideologies each human holds and grasp how one’s ideals can be governed and shaped through family, tradition, culture, and
In the musical, Burr sings “if there is a reason I’m still alive/When ev’ryone who loves me has died/I’m willing to wait for it,” implying that patience is one of his key ideals, and he is prepared to wait to understand what his real purpose in life is, and just like me, he is not willing to take risks for possible success (91). The commonality between Burr and me that accounts for this similarity is the type of culture we were raised in: Burr was born in an affluent family, with his father being the president of a college, and I was raised in a strict Indian family. Our cultures and upbringings came with numerous preclusions against failure and blundering and opposed the notion of having a second attempt. There are some occasions when these bounds set by a culture limit one’s potential, like the instance when Burr was not in “the room where it happens,” where the Hamilton’s financial plan was being discussed (187). Just as Burr missed opportunities to witness the negotiation of Hamilton’s plan, I have missed many chances in dread of failure, due to the bounds that my culture has imbued in me. In contrast, Hamilton has no such restrictions, and seems to write “day and night like [he is] running out of time,” which shows his brash and hasty lifestyle, a way of thinking that both Burr and I denounce (137). Hamilton’s rashness is a trait that both Burr and I do not possess, as our …show more content…
By realizing these interconnections and distinctions between the founding fathers as depicted in Hamilton: The Revolution, mankind can begin to comprehend the values and ideologies each human holds and grasp how one’s ideals can be governed and shaped through family, tradition, culture, and