Hamilton: How a Single Musical Impacted an Entire Generation

Hamilton has

undoubtedly changed the world. It has been nominated for 16 Tony Awards and won 11. It was even made into a film on Disney Plus. Lin Manuel Miranda has accomplished what millions of social studies teachers have been trying to do for decades - get students interested in history. Miranda puts a unique perspective on the life of federalist and founding father Alexander Hamilton by giving students a relatable character and - perhaps most important of all - a catchy song to illustrate the life of Hamilton.

But why is Hamilton so relatable? I mean he’s a 47-year-old white dude that’s been dead for two and a half centuries - not exactly the character that most teenagers idolize. The secret lies not in the way that Alexander Hamilton lived his life, but the way that Lin-Manuel Miranda portrayed it.

For example, take the very first song: Lin-Manuel Miranda writes “The ship is in the harbor now, see if you can spot him/Just another immigrant coming up from the bottom” Miranda emphasizes that Hamilton was an immigrant several times throughout the show. And by doing so he makes millions of 1st and 2nd generation immigrants feel seen. Miranda is one of the first people to portray being an immigrant in a positive light. For example, in the iconic line “Immigrants/We get the job done” he portrays immigrants as hardworking and sympathetic, breaking the stereotype that immigrants are lazy, job-stealing people. Lin-Manuel Miranda helps millions of kids feel seen. He makes them feel like their story matters, by showing them, “See? Even one of our founding fathers was an immigrant. You deserve to be treated like a human being.” It’s surprising how a broadway show about the founding fathers can make teenagers feel more seen than the media and most tv shows.

Another reason that Hamilton became so popular was because of the phenomenally diverse cast that it produced. It had people of almost every color: White, Black, Asian, Mixed, Hispanic, etc. despite being a show that’s mainly about white people. Lin-Manuel Miranda had the perfect excuse to have an all-white cast, and instead, he ripped up that opportunity and made sure that he chose the best people for the roles, regardless of their skin color. Again, he makes teenagers feel seen. You can’t relate to a movie or TV show if you can’t see yourself in that piece of media. And Lin-Manuel Miranda made sure kids finally got the representation they deserved.

And the last reason why Hamilton is so relatable is Alexander Hamilton himself. Alexander Hamilton was making history as he lived. And now so are we. We are watching our world fall apart around us. The pandemic is killing millions of people, while governments sit around doing nothing. Our planet is dying, and it’s likely we won’t have an Earth in 10 years, but companies are more concerned with making money. Our healthcare is falling apart, the minimum wage is unlivable, student loans are going through the roof, police brutality is getting worse, the wealth gap is increasing rapidly, the rich are getting richer while the poor are fighting to keep their heads above water. And it falls on Generation Z to fix all of this. Right now, history has its eyes on us. Our world is going up in flames. It’s up to us to decide whether we’re going to burn or rise up. If we decide to sit around doing nothing, if we pretend that it isn’t our problem to fix these things, then we are just as guilty as the people who created these problems in the first place. Hamilton’s conflict throughout the play is that he is trying to build something that will outlive him. He has this increasing desperation to prove himself, to fix everything, and be a part of history. Well, like it or not we’re a part of history now too. We don’t get to decide who tells our story. But maybe we have a say in how they tell it. So, let’s go live our lives in a way that it can be turned into a hit Broadway musical 200 years later. Because I don’t know about you, but I am not throwing away my shot.