John Lennon: Life and Influence on The World

“You, you may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” John Lennon

The musical genius John Winston Lennon was born October 9, 1940 in gloomy Liverpool, England. Absolutely nothing about his birth was quiet. His mother, Julia Lennon, gave birth to him during an air raid so dreadful it could send you into a cold sweat. But Julia was extremely poor, so she sent John to live with his aunt Mimi. Julia’s husband, Alfred Lennon inspired John because he was never around to raise his talented son. John also had five siblings. Julia Baird, Ingrid Pederson and Jacqueline Dykins were his half siblings and Robin Francis Lennon and David Henry Lennon were his full siblings. As one can see, John had a very peculiar family.

John’s first school was Mosspits lane infants school, where he was enrolled on November 12, 1945, but he then transferred to Dovedale Road school. But upon his passing 11+ he switched to Quarry bank grammar school, where he expressed his true passion: music! He formed the Quarrymen, his first band ever. Some key members were Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe. He didn’t know it then, but he was going to change the world, and about six months later, the Quarrymen became the Beatles. By now the members were John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best. But one more change had to be made before the important events began. Pete Best was fired, due to a multitude of reasons, and then, the dedicated Ringo Starr was hired. When the Beatles visited Hamburg, Germany, Sutcliffe fell in love with the city, so when The Beatles decided to leave, he remained in Hamburg. And now, The Beatles were ready to conquer the world.

By 1964, The Beatles were the most popular band in America. But John Lennon did make one grave error: he told a reporter that The Beatles were more popular than God. This backfired rapidly: Radio stations held enraged bonfires that filled the air with the smell of smoke, inviting people to burn Beatles albums. But enough about The Beatles. Let’s talk about Lennon and his quiet, calm wife. John Lennon and Cynthia Lennon had a lovely wedding with sweet-smelling roses all around them. A year later, Cynthia gave birth to John’s first son: Julian Lennon, named after his late mother. John was never around for his young son. He wasn’t there when his son was born, because he was on tour. He saw his son three days after being born.

John Lennon didn’t believe in the violence, or the use of weapons. In fact, he was a deeply influential peace activist. He once held a protest, which instead of a be-in, was a bed-in, where he and his second wife, Yoko Ono stayed in their bed for eight days. They also rented billboards that said “war is over (if you want it)”. For a while, John and Yoko’s marriage was failing miserably, and Yoko asked him to move out. Sadness crept over John, and he probably felt like he was falling into a pit of darkness. He drank too much and got into fights, but then Yoko reconsidered and they moved back in together. But one sorrowful, blue day, a mentally ill man named Mark David Chapman asked John for him to autograph his album but later that day, Chapman visited Lennon and Ono’s apartment. He called out “Mr. Lennon!”, took out a gun, and shot him. He was only forty years old when he died.

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”. John Lennon was one of the most influential and peaceful people of his time. He was also a loving father. He was, beyond the shadow of a doubt, one of the greatest musicians ever. He had his setbacks, but he always prevailed. He may be gone, but his music will be with us until the end of time.

Works Cited:

1. Kakutani, M. (2012, September 10). In Iraq, two friends bonded by fear and disillusionment. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/books/in-iraq-two-friends-bonded-by-fear-and-disillusionment.html
2. Koenig, R. (2015). The friendship of Bartle and Murphy in Kevin Powers’ The Yellow Birds. In D. Mohr & P. Wolfgang (Eds.), Kevin Powers: A critical companion (pp. 23-32). University of South Carolina Press.
3. Levasseur, S. (2015). Living in trauma: Surviving the battlefield in Kevin Powers’ The Yellow Birds. In D. Mohr & P. Wolfgang (Eds.), Kevin Powers: A critical companion (pp. 50-62). University of South Carolina Press.
4. Malmgren, C. (2017). “The memory of her son was a phantom limb”: Grief and trauma in Kevin Powers’s The Yellow Birds. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 58(2), 138-148. doi: 10.1080/00111619.2016.1154683
5. Mertens, S. (2014). Survival, friendship, and the trauma of war in Kevin Powers’ The Yellow Birds. Journal of the Short Story in English, (62), 91-104. doi: 10.4000/jsse.1499
6. Monroe, J. (2016). Psychological survival strategies in the contemporary war novel. Journal of War & Culture Studies, 9(1), 57-70. doi: 10.1080/17526272.2015.1137108
7. Powers, K. (2012). The Yellow Birds. Little, Brown and Company.
8. Seel, N. M. (2016). Finding the word for the war: Trauma, testimony, and language in Kevin Powers’ The Yellow Birds. War, Literature & the Arts, 28(1/2), 1-20.
9. Smith, P. (2015). The Yellow Birds: Tragedy, trauma, and the senselessness of war. In D. Mohr & P. Wolfgang (Eds.), Kevin Powers: A critical companion (pp. 33-49). University of South Carolina Press.
10. Tournay-Theodotou, F. (2017). Survival, guilt, and remembrance in contemporary war fiction: A comparative study of Kevin Powers’s The Yellow Birds and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research, 5(2), 51-66.