Publisher’s Note: The publisher has had no role in editing this column, which is published as the writer submitted it with the intention of publication in BEACONS.
By Drew Wemple
2016 may have been, excluding 2020, one of the most compelling and packed year’s we’ve had in the last century, in America. David Bowie and Muhammad Ali passed away and were promptly mourned, ‘Hamilton’ the musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda swept through Broadway, the world got an all-female Ghostbusters, and a dead Gorilla, to be frank, became one of the most shared memes of all time. Oh, and there was an election that altered American history as we know it. Peggy Noonan, an opinion columnist for the Wall Street Journal, and former special assistant speechwriter for Ronald Regan took 2016 as an opportunity to take a divided country and expose readers to the reality of the situation. Noonan captures the essence of 2016 America through her Pulitzer prize-winning columns, with the apparent goal of protecting the unprotected.
Noonan took home the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in commentary writing with a body of work compiled of 10 columns. Many of which were focused around the 2016 election race, and all the aspects and consequences of such. But Noonan’s main purpose of these columns was not to just cover and summarize an election; there was a bigger picture. The idea of giving a voice to the voiceless doesn’t do Noonan’s winning columns justice; the theme of these works was to protect the voiceless. Throughout these pieces, Noonan mentions a concept of a two party system, of sorts- the protected and the unprotected. To explain Noonan writes, “The protected make public policy. The unprotected live in it,” (Trump and the rise of the unprotected, Noonan.) Throughout these columns Noonan drives home the point that the unprotected, she classifies as “figures in government, politics and media. They live in nice neighborhoods, safe ones. Their families function, their kids go to good schools, they’ve got some money. All of these things tend to isolate them, or provide buffers,” (Trump and the rise of the unprotected, Noonan), don’t acknowledge the part of the country they most significantly affect- the unprotected, the common folk. Whether Noonan writes heavily in her on voice, or tells the story of photojournalist traveling to the untouched neighborhoods and communities of America, all these columns have a main idea; that the protected and higher up individuals in this country need to acknowledge and come to the aid of the unprotected individuals around the world that their decisions and policies have the heaviest effect on.
The examples Noonan uses to analyze this concept and main idea vary widely; as well as the format and literary techniques used. One way she does this is through her use of historical situations and examples. One tactic is through witty and sarcastic commentary. For example, in her piece “Trump was the Spark not the Fire” where she discusses the media's role in Donald’s Trump rise to Presidential fame she writes, “When Mr. Trump was on, ratings jumped, but it wasn’t only ratings, it was something else. It was the freak show at its zenith, it was great TV -- you didn’t know what he was going to say next! He didn’t know! It was better than everyone else’s boring, prefabricated, airless, weightless, relentless word-saying -- better than Ted Cruz, who seemed like someone who practiced sincere hand gestures in the mirror at night, better than Marco the moist robot, better than Hillary’s grim and horrifying attempts to chuckle like a person who chuckles.” Here Noonan uses both pace and a snarky comment to both provide a lighthearted take as well as outline the gravity of the situation. Again you see another example of her countless sarcastic comments when she writes, “Which gives rise to a question, for me a poignant one. What if there had been a Sane Donald Trump? Oh my God, Sane Trump would have won in a landslide. Sane Donald Trump, just to start, would look normal and happy, not grim and glowering. He would be able to hear and act on good advice. He would explain his positions with clarity and depth, not with the impatient half-grasping of a notion that marks real Donald Trump’s public persona,” (Imagine a Sane Donald Trump.) This again seems comical and lighthearted, but at its core is the message that this country is on the verge of electing an insane individual who, in Noonans mind, will bring impending doom upon both the Republican party and the governed of the nation- the unprotected.
Another way Noonan emphasizes this crucial concept of protecting the unprotected, is through drawing on outside examples and experiences without writing in her own voice. For instance, in her column “Remembering a Hero, 15 Years after 9/11” she writes about the actions of Welles Crowther, or as he’s better known as the man in the red bandana. The piece recounts his actions on 9/11 as he rescued and saved many individuals in the South Tower. She writes, “His father sometimes felt guilt -- maybe taking him to the fire department so much when he was a kid was why Welles died. Alison said no: “That gave him the tools to be the fullest person he was that day.” This again emphasizes the idea of literally protecting those in need; those being affected by a crumbling world around them having someone come to their need. Then again in her column “A wounded Boy’s Silence, and the Candidates'” Noonan discusses how the idea of war and its consequences is seemingly lost on the 2016 canidates through the lens of a little boy in Syria. She writes of the 5 year old boy Omran Daqneesh saying, “They wouldn’t let the ambulance go until it was full. There was room for more children, and they came. But Omran is the one you can’t stop watching. He stares mutely, like a shocked old man. Photojournalists make flashes of light as they take his picture. No one has—or takes—a moment to call any comfort to him, to the 5-year-old boy as he stares ahead...Watching the videotape, posted on YouTube by an anti-Assad group, you see what is most harrowing. It isn’t only his youth, his aloneness, the blood—it’s that he isn’t crying.” This is just an exclamation point on this concept; the 2016 candidates, or simply anyone didn't understand the effects and consequences of their actions or failure to act. She writes, “ It strikes me as rather mad that our candidates for commander in chief of the most powerful armed forces in the world don’t ever simply think aloud about this,” (Wounded Boy’s Silence, Noonan.)
Noonan’s main idea was simple yet effective and persuasive- to protect the unprotected. It didn’t have to be through pulling people out of collapsing towers, it had to be acknowledging that the towers were collapsing and to enact some form of change to protect those around you. Noonan proves clearly refined in her writing techniques through humorous commentary, and maintaining pace, and with that poses the riveting idea to protect the unprotected when those protected won’t.
Comments