The song "The Ten Duel Commandments" is about the duel between Lee and Lauren shortly after Lee insults Washington. The song is very hip-hop themed and uses background noise to increase the impact of the situation. The song also gives us a rundown of what happens in a duel and how most of them are stopped before anyone fires their gun. It uses rhyming throughout the song especially right after the number count or when it is talking about dueling itself. Here are a few examples of this "If they can't reach a peace ,that's alright time to get some pistols and a doctor on sight." "Your last chance to negotiate, Send in your seconds, see if they can set the record straight…" These rhymes show us that dueling is very serious since they need a doctor on sight. Another example of rhyming is when Burr and Hamilton are talking,

"Alexander

Aaron Burr, sir

Can we agree that duels are dumb and immature?

Sure

But your man has to answer for his words, Burr

With his life? We both know that’s absurd, sir

Hang on, how many men died because Lee was inexperienced and ruinous?

Okay, so we’re doing’ this" This adds a bit of comedy to the tense scene, but is also used as a foreshadowing to their future duel in which Burr abandons his view that duels are dumb and immature. There is also ticking in the background of the song like that of a clock which along with the countdown at the beginning, end and middle of the song is used to show the seriousness of the situation. Eventually Lee only is wounded, but the clicking of clocks brings up the idea that life is like a clock and when that clock stops so does your life. It can also be inferred that the clicking of the clock is not about Lee being shot, but about Hamilton and his son since one the clock stopped they both died in their duels. Why do you think Miranda decided to use hip-hop in this song which has some very serious themes in it?

In the song "My Right Hand Man" the melody is very interesting and it is a very important song in the Musical. The song begins with a very saddening melody about the 32,000 British troops in New York Harbor showing how bad their situation is and this is reinforced when Washington tells them that they are "out numbered, out planned". This changes as the song goes on and the music becomes more upbeat and bouncy when the line "Rise up" is sang showing that though they are out numbered, out planned they will still fight. As Washington comes into the scene the music get even more upbeat showing the effect that Washington has and how inspirational he is to his troops. The music also reminds us that despite how upbeat they seem to be their situation is still pretty bad and shows how intense these battles are like we are actually there. The cannon noises reinforce this effect showing just how powerful they are especially when they are retreating telling us that something very bad has happened to cause this without telling us directly. The music and beat then begin to lower as Washington tells us why he is angry and that he needs help this also dramatizes their loss of New York City. The melody stays this way until Washington talks to Hamilton about wanting to go into battle then it starts to pick up pace and gets more upbeat as Hamilton I given the chance to become his secretary. It really picks up as Hamilton talks about how he is going to help the situation and the very end of the song is dramatized to show how important it is that he is now Washington's right hand man. If the song was not so intense do you think it would be as memorable or is the intensity of the music essential to the song.

 http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-right-hand-man-lyrics

The song "Stay Alive" talks about the battle of Monmouth and the Continental armies strategy during that part of the war. The song shows this strategy is Washington's, but in reality it was General Lee's strategy. The song itself is very broad and leads us to assume that Lee was a coward which is reinforced by the quote, "Shits the bed at the battle of Monmouth". What we don't know is that Lee's actions actually saved the battle while Washington was given credit for the stalemate. By looking into the history of the battle we see that Lee was not retreating because he was a coward, but because his men were about to be annihilated by the British. In the song Lee says, "But there are so many," in a cowardly voice, but in reality this reinforces how badly things were going that they had to retreat. His retreat actually allowed Washington time to set up a defensive line while also drawing the British into an unfavorable position which allowed the battle to end in a draw. The only thing that is one hundred percent true is the fact that he wrote disrespectful letters about Washington which in the end is what did him in not that he was a coward. Why do you think Miranda shows Lee as a good for nothing coward? He of course is not one of the most popular people in U.S history because of how he treats Washington, but he should still get credit for his role in the battles eventual outcome. I feel Miranda shows him as a coward to better promote Hamilton since Lee got the job he wanted and in the great scope of the play is not a important character, so Miranda is able to do what he wants with him.      

http://www.fromthesquare.org/charles-lee-and-hamilton-hes-a-general-wheee/#.V_74nIWcHmI

Throughout Hamilton two lines are repeated more than any other, "Who lives who dies who tells you're story?" and "I am not throwing away my shot" however in this case I will be speaking about the former. The quote itself seems very simple, but when you think about it you wonder who does tell your story? You certainly aren't the one to tell it since you will be dead and how do you make sure your story is told? This is something that we all ask ourselves and in itself part of the American dream. By this I mean that we all strive for one thing to be remembered and this is certainly shown throughout American history and reflected in Hamilton's life. He was a immigrant with nothing special about him so what did he do? He made himself special and made sure he was remembered. This is expressed in the song whose title is the same as the quote. Through out the song it shows that even those who didn't like him still remembered him for the things he did the good and the bad. It also tells us that his wife Eliza is the one to insure his story is told correctly and that he is not forgotten to history. In the end isn't that what we all want to not be forgotten to history, but we must also realize that we can only do so much and if we are remembered we must make sure we are remembered for being us. As a question I would like to ask do you think this quote is one to live by or are their flaws in its usage?

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-who-lives-who-dies-who-tells-your-story-lyrics

In the song "We Know" Hamilton is accused of using government funds for his own purposes. In response he admits that he did do something wrong, but not what his rivals accuse him of. He even goes as far as to publicly apologies for it in the Reynold's Pamphlet. This essentially ruins his chances of becoming president, but saves his financial system and to some extent his political career. In todays election Hillary Clinton faces a similar situation, but hers is much more public and what she is accused of is more grievous then what Hamilton was accused of. She is accused of emailing classified information through her personal email which is not as secure as her government one. However unlike Hamilton, Clinton denies all of this even when we have information that proves her wrong. One has to wonder why she won't confess to her crime since the truth about it is known? You also have to draw a parallel between the two crimes they commit for Hamilton it is his affair with Mrs. Reynolds which ended up being the first documented sex scandal in the U.S. As for Clinton this is probably not the first time classified information has been leaked through emails by a government official, but it is probably the first time that a presidential candidate has been shown to have done it and then have it made public knowledge.  This is where I wanna ask a question despite the backlash he got from it Hamilton's confession helped him more then if he denied it and let his political opponents use it against him, do you think it would help Clinton if she did the same or would it not make a difference?

Throughout Alexander Hamilton the fact that Alexander is a immigrant is constantly brought up and used to try to insult him or make others see him as less reliable compared to the other founding fathers. In the song "We Know" Jefferson, Madison and Burr try to get Hamilton to step down by using this against him when they accuse him of giving government funds to James Reynolds. The song begins with them accusing Hamilton of taking government funds and giving them to Reynolds they also throw in some racist comments by basically saying that since he is a immigrant this is something they would expect of him. Hamilton strikes back however and tells them what really happened and shows evidence to prove them wrong quickly shutting them up and causing them to drop their accusations.

In our election today Donald Trump uses racism in attempts to defeat his opponents or to gain support from those that share his view. However just like Hamilton's rivals Trump is shown to not know the full story when he starts to make racist comments or tries to pin stuff on his political opponents. Evidence of this is when he stated that Obama was not a natural born U.S citizen and continue to state it even when proven incorrect. 

At this difference I'd like to pose a question if Trump would stop once he was proven wrong how do you think it would affect his campaign? Would it affect it negatively because he would be seen as weak or do you think it would help his campaign when people see that he knows when to back off a particular subject?