Critical Essay

When someone in the public eye passes away, there becomes this dire need to define them. We run to attach a few adjectives to their name, maybe even some titles. A few key words or phrases are constantly seen repeatedly in connection to that person, whether it be through real-life conversations, television or news reports, or over forms of social media. Their whole life becomes grouped into some letters. We, the collective public, choose to remember them as something very concrete. More likely than not, if the person is admired by many, they become this figure of high esteem and adoration. This is exactly what happened with John Lennon.

When Lennon passed, the public was understandably shocked and upset. John was an inspiration to many all over the world, both for his music and for his peace activism. He had just reemerged in the music industry from a five year hiatus. Lennon had been spending time with his son Sean, and his wife, Yoko Ono. His fans were rewarded with a new song in October, and on the 8th of December, Lennon was shot to death. Quickly, Lennon was defined in society. He was a musical inspiration, an inspiration for peace, a model for those to conduct their lives in harmony. Lennon, although he already was, became even more-so immortalized as an important figure of reverence in the world. People with this much influence and impact over society demand a physical space in which they can be remembered. Thus, Strawberry Fields in Central Park came to be.

Strawberry Fields was created to represent all that John Lennon stood for. His widow worked with a landscape architect in order to produce a peaceful spot. It serves as a nice change of pace from the busy city streets. This small section of Central Park is supposed to be a tranquil quiet area. It is not always quiet, but there is a feeling of peace present in the space. Lennon’s quest for peace is something central to his character and how the world remembers him. It is only natural that this space, dedicated to this man, conveys the same sort of feeling. Music is another constant at Strawberry Fields. Lennon’s own songs, both from his time with the Beatles and his solo endeavors are the soundtrack for a walk through Strawberry Fields. Even music by other artists are played and sung by visitors of this space. The noise somewhat adds to the peacefulness of the space. It puts visitors at ease. Even the fact that admission to this memorial is free, gives it a sort of Lennon-vibe. Lennon believed in people putting aside their differences, coming together, and living in harmony. This is exactly what strangers do in Strawberry Fields. There is no requirement for who is allowed to walk through this area, nor is there any reason for anyone to not be allowed entry. No matter your age, gender, race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, etc., you are granted access to a small portion of New York dedicated to John Lennon.

The thing about memorials is that they are constructed to guide a sort of thinking of someone/something. They provoke emotion, it is their purpose. With Strawberry Fields, it was constructed for people to feel closer to John Lennon, and reflect on his memory and legacy in a controlled, tranquil space. The memorial accomplishes its purpose, there is no doubt.

Visitors might stumble upon Strawberry Fields as they are making their way around the city, but no matter how they get there, they are faced with the idea of John Lennon. Central to the memorial is the mosaic tile, the Imagine tile. This is representative of one of Lennon’s most famous songs, “Imagine”. This song may even be his most widely known song, strictly because of the message it portrays. It talks about living life as one, in harmony. Essentially, it is a perfect blend for how Lennon is to be remembered; peace and music. Collective memory, the memory of people from all over, who do not have to be connected to one another at all, forms in the homes of people who loved or knew John Lennon. The admiration for this passed figure then converges with public memory, when all those people come together and exist at one time in Strawberry Fields.  Edward Casey, scholar on the multiple types of memory, writes, “Place provides the vital substructure of public memory not only by virtue of certain of its features that enable, embody, and induce shared remembrances but also for the very practical reason that it offers a space in which human bodies can come into proximity”(32-33). Strawberry Field is the epicenter of remembering John Lennon. All those who gather, bring their own thoughts, or the collective thoughts they have formed, and are able to publicly remember in a shared space.

New Yorkers and plain admirers alike are given a space to express their love for Lennon, an area where they can go to meditate on him, or clear their own mind of their problems. They have an outlet to express their thoughts on the passed figure, and can do that in conjunction with the stranger standing next to them who is also doing the same thing. When numbers of people are all in the park at the same time, just sitting or talking with another, or even playing instruments and singing along to songs, they are participating in the public memory of John Lennon. On the day of his birth and death, the volume of those participating in his public memory increases tremendously.

What collective memory tends to leave out, is that there is more to John Lennon than the music and peace. Casey makes this ability to omit things when forging collective memory more clear when he says, “Not the experience but the focus--amounting to a monothetic obsession--is what is shared in collective memory”(23). We don’t look at the whole, we pick a focus point, and solely concentrate on that. We become obsessed with that one focus point, and it becomes more prominent than the whole. He was not always the kindest soul. Lennon had a lot of anger and aggression, and would often take it out on his first wife, Cynthia. He has been quoted as saying that he would hit and be cruel to women. He was physically and verbally abusive at times, and even admits to a “chauvinistic” attitude towards women. Lennon was possessive and a violent fighter. He didn’t really even change his ways until he met Yoko Ono. She gets the credit for being the one to transform Lennon, so much so that he even became an advocate for feminism. His change seems radical, and it was. It is not widely recognized though, that there was a change in Lennon. His attitude towards women before Ono is not how he gets remembered. Yes, people can change, obviously Lennon did, but if the change is not acknowledged, then Lennon’s whole truth is never revealed. There is a tension that exists between who Lennon really was, and how we have remembered him collectively.

Lennon had a strained relationship with his first son, Julian. Apparently Julian was not a planned child, like Lennon’s second son Sean. Lennon has said that he doesn’t love his first son any less, yet there was a disconnect between the two, so much so that Julian felt closer to Lennon’s bandmate Paul McCartney. Of course, someone’s strained relationship with their child is not a reason to dismiss them, it is an indication that there was not always this constant harmony in his life. We sometimes forget that not everything in Lennon’s life was peace and harmony, and his public memorial sure does not want to point this out to us. His public memorial wants us to keep that clean image of Lennon.

This is not how the public are conditioned to see him. We have let this part fade away from the grand narrative of John Lennon. We did not include this because it is not something that is pleasant to think about. Who wants their role model to be someone who would hit his wife and had a rocky relationship to his first-born child? This information of Lennon does not fit into the category of admiration, so it gets lost. We choose to erase it. The bad stuff doesn’t fit into the narrative of lifting up someone who has passed and standing them on a pedestal for the rest of the world to admire.

We want to believe in the good of people. We don’t want to always remember the bad things someone has done, or the not so favorable qualities they might have possessed. It is natural to highlight what we love and admire about someone who has passed. We idealize those who are not here anymore. And that is not a bad thing. It is totally okay to recognize the good of people and commemorate that. We want to be careful though, to not let our over-idealized view of those who are gone be the only thing that dictates our outlook on the world and on the truth.

Living in such a digital age, it is hard to harness the truth in its entirety. Whether remembering an event, person, thing, etc., there are so many aspects to take into consideration. Pay attention to how each individual memory react with one another to form this collective memory or public memory. Once that collective memory is forged, it becomes hard to alter. When discussing collective memory, Casey writes, “All that matters is commonality of content”(23). People who have no connection to each other in their lives, share the same memory through collective memory. The same way of thinking.The collective memory might be swayed with emotion, but that is inevitable. Still, if enough people think one way, it almost becomes a sort of truth.

People are going to remember John Lennon how they want to. Yet, there will always be a grand narrative about him, just as there is about anyone of his caliber. Currently, he is a musical icon and a peace activist, who strove to make the world a better place through those two mediums. There was more to him as a person. It is important that is recognized. He was not always this man on a pedestal, as the public memory has shaped him to be. He had his faults just like every other human. He is not some demigod figure. I feel like oftentimes people get sucked into that way of thinking, and Strawberry Fields may be credited as a promoter for that mindset.

So many forms of memory are existing at a time when you walk through Strawberry Fields, but they all combine to form one prevailing memory. John Lennon was a gifted singer/songwriter who used his platform to promote peace. The 40 years John walked this earth has been compartmentalized into that idea. There is more angles to the story, but that is the general overview. When we create this grand narrative about a person, we tend to leave out a lot. The grand narrative of John Lennon, formed through the collective and public memory, actually is a disservice to the authenticity to the man himself.

Works Cited

Casey, Edward S. Framing Public Memory. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press,

2004.