Critical Essay: Texts and Ways of Thinking; After the Bomb

Critical Essay: Texts and Ways of Thinking; After the Bomb                                     

The dropping of the atomic bomb affected the overall psyche of society. This was ultimately reflected through texts written during the Cold War period which offered questionings of human values and beliefs. In the book ‘Hiroshima’, by John Hersey, the satirical film ‘Dr Strangelove’ (How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb), by Stanley Kubrick and the poem, ‘Howl (Part I)’, by Allen Ginsberg explore and present the effects of the dropping of the atomic bomb through a range of literary and film techniques in order to make various points on social, political, philosophical and religious paradigms of the Cold War period.

The conflicting ideologies of capitalism and communism resulted in a long struggle for global supremacy between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. The intense fear of the possible spread of communism in capitalist nations resulted in the methods of spying, secret operations and propaganda to influence human values and beliefs, which as a result resulted in the questioning of democratic values, the human progress and religious paradigms.

The film, ‘Dr Strangelove’ or ‘How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb’, by Stanley Kubrick is a satirical commentary on the absurdity of nuclear war and the Cold War mentality which represents a political and cultural parody of Cold War rhetoric and anxiety. Kubrick utilises a combination of satiric and black comedy techniques and characterisation in order to satirise Cold War figures, attitudes and mindsets.

Kubrick portrays the paranoia that exists about the Russians and the communism conspiracies as irrational to the point of insanity. In ‘Dr Strangelove’, both the Soviet and American leaders are portrayed as juvenile and lacking in critical thought, evoking a sense of hyperbolic immaturity that leads the members of the War Room to an intense session of shouting and name calling, effectively erasing the notion that we have responsible individuals handling the nuclear weapons. This lack of responsibility in the military leaders can be attributed mainly to the fears that existed in America about Russia and communism during the Cold War.

Kubrick effectively uses black comedy to respond to the fear and paranoia of nuclear annihilation engendered by the Cold War. This is shown through the exaggerated portrayal of several characters and their ludicrous attitudes in potentially morbid situations such as Jack Ripper and Buck Turgidson. Kubrick uses the character of Jack Ripper to portray the paranoia and fear that the American people had with communism. General Ripper is an exaggerated stereotype of American Senator Joseph McCarthy. General Ripper hopes that bombing Russia will thwart the communist conspiracy to infiltrate, "sap and impurity" the "precious bodily fluids" of the American people with fluoridated water. This is similar to McCarthy’s ‘witch-trialesque’ hearings, which were aimed at playing on the communism paranoia of the American people. Kubrick comically shows the advantage that the government took of the irrational fears that the American people had of communism infiltration. Similarly, in the poem, ‘Howl (Part I)’, Allen Ginsberg shows the fear and paranoia of nuclear war present during the Cold War period. Ginsberg illustrates an image of people ‘who cowered in unshaven rooms in underwear, burning their money in waste baskets and listening to Terror through the wall’ to reflect the irrational actions and ways of thinking during the Cold War period.