The song "My Shot" is about Alexander Hamilton
talking about how he does not want to throw away his shot. The first few times
that I listened to this song, I just thought that it was a catchy song that
tells you what it is about in the title. However, a question that crossed
my mind while I was listening to it recently was; is Miranda's purpose in
having this song to foreshadow that Hamilton winds up getting shot at the end?
I decided to take a closer look at the lyrics and something that I noticed was
that one line says "If you talk, you're gonna get shot." This alone
is very interesting however, what is more so is the fact that Burr is the one
who sings the line. This is important because it was Burr who ended up shooting
Hamilton. Besides this, that line also gives us a bit of context as far as why
Burr would be shooting Hamilton in the first place. After discovering both the
line and who sings it I starting to think about the wording that Miranda used.
He easily could have used another word instead of shot such as chance, however
he decided to go with shot. After considering all three of these things, in my
opinion it is extremely evident that Miranda was trying to
foreshadow Hamilton's death, or at least the fact that someone was going
to get shot and that it would be Burr who did the shooting.
I think it is especially interesting that Burr was the one who sings that line you mentioned. The word shot is also repeated several times and I think that has some importance as well. I definitely agree that this song was foreshadowing. Especially with Burr and Hamilton in it. Like you said, word choice was very apparent and that I think is a big reason as to if this was foreshadowing.
ReplyDeleteIt's almost comical if you think of it this way. The fact that he drills into the listener's mind about not throwing away his shot, yet he does just that. He throws away his shot in the sense that he could have shot Burr who was becoming a problem yet he decided to aim at the sky and essentially "threw away his shot" at a chance of killing Burr. I don't know if Miranda placed this song and worded it the way he did on purpose, but it's definitely something interesting to think about.
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ReplyDeleteWow, I never put the two together but that makes so much sense. We all know that Hamilton does a lot of "talking" and we know that Burr doesn't like him from the beginning, it's just the vibe he gives off! I think it is so cool that you were able to think of this! Miranda is very smart for the foreshadowing here, I didn't even catch that this alluded to Hamilton being shot by Burr.
ReplyDeleteI really like your thoughts on this song. I never thought of it in that way. I have always thought of it as just a song about only having one opportunity, but i like how you talked about the foreshadowing of Hamilton getting shot because that is a really interesting viewpoint on the matter. I really enjoy this blog post!
ReplyDeleteI did not related this song with the death of Hamilton, like you did. It is interesting because you are totally right, Burr is the one that sing the line and he is the one that shot at Hamilton as well. You made a great point here.
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