Paper 6- Letters from Home Revision

Jared Sims
English 101
December 9, 2007
Rhetorical Analysis

Terrorism has become a big issue in the United States after the attack on the world trade center. Terrorism also has caused a good number of our military to have to deploy in foreign countries. It’s not easy on soldiers being away from their families for extended periods of time. John Michael Montgomery creates a persona in his song, “Letters from Home”, of a man who is away at war that keeps on going because he knows he has a family at home that cares about him. People don’t realize how hard it is not only on the soldier, but also his family that he has to leave behind at home.

The soldier in this song exhibits many signs that he is depressed, misses his family, but keeps on going for the sake of his country. The line, “like we ain’t scared and are boots ain’t muddy” (Lyrics007 9), portrays how the soldier is feeling low. The persona gives the reason that he keeps on going every day from the lines, “and it keeps me drivin’ on/waitin on, letters from home” (Lyrics007 14-15). From the lines, “and everything’s the same old same, in Johnsonville” (Lyrics007 4) combined with “and they all laugh like there’s something funny bout the way I talk” (Lyrics007 10), you realize that the logos personifies your typical southern boy from a small country town that has to go off to war. We know the soldier has some kind of a fiancée or girlfriend back home from his lines “My dearest love it’s almost dawn/I been lying here all night long/wonderin’ where you might be/I saw your momma and I showed her the ring” (Lyrics 16-19). Mothers are normally the most emotional people when it comes to their children while fathers are more stand offish. The persona created was that of a man whose father was somewhat hard-hearted towards him. The lines “Dear son I know I ain’t written/and sitting here tonight alone in the kitchen it occurs to me/I might not have said it so I’ll say it now/son you make me proud” (Lyrics007 32-35) tell me that the father has a distant relationship with his son. It is clear to me from the line, “but no one laughs, cause there ain’t nothing funny when a soldier cries,” that the soldier’s heart is touched by the fact that his father was thinking about him (Lyrics007 38).

The lyrics of the song are setup perfect to give you a dramatic effect. There are three main paragraphs with no chorus, and as you begin reading through the logos, you pick up that there are three people that write letters to the soldier. The mother’s letter is mentioned first in the song but oddly she mentions, “your stubborn old daddy ain’t said too much/but I’m sure you know he sends his love” (Lyrics007 5-6). When you read the aforementioned lyric, you think in the back of your head that there is a dysfunctional relationship between the father and son. As you continue reading through the lyrics, you learn that his fiancée/girlfriend at home misses him. The brilliance to the piece is the last paragraph. The soldier gets a letter from his father surprisingly and you can tell that it was a shock by the line, “but no one laughs, cause there ain’t nothing funny when a soldier cries” (Lyrics007 38). After reading that lyric, the whole tone in the logos seems to change from sad to proud. The lyric is geared towards the pathos to inspire a feeling of happiness for the soldier. The soldier cries because he realizes that his father after all is proud of him for fighting for his country. The goal of this song was to make the pathos realize that soldiers are people with emotions. When I say soldiers have emotions, it is an obvious statement but seems to be overlooked by many daily. People sometimes seem to just think that soldiers are robots that go off to foreign lands and fight then come back. What people don’t realize is that the whole time they are gone; there are loved ones back home that they miss. It can’t be easy having the responsibility to stay alive, but at the same time being depressed and missing who you have at home.

The good writing method that the ethos uses is his element of surprise in the last paragraph. In the last paragraph, I described in detail of how the ethos surprises you in the last paragraph with the letter from his father. I also like how the ethos has the lines, “I hold it up and show my buddies/like we ain’t scared and are boots ain’t muddy” (Lyrics007 8-9), in each paragraph to keep the song’s rhythm going. The negative side of the song was that it was short and I think although the last paragraph was genius, it could have been made more dramatic. The song was short and by lengthening the song I believe there would be more build up to what happened at the end. The last paragraph should have had more of a dramatic ending such as after the lyric, “but no one laughs, cause there ain’t nothing funny when a soldier cries” (Lyrics 007 38), the ethos could have added something about the soldier getting pumped up and proud of what he is doing instead of making the end uniform with every other paragraph.

The artist did a very nice job of making his point effective. He didn’t make the song repetitious by changing just enough lyrics in each paragraph to keep the pathos interested. I also like how the ethos portrayed the soldier as being from the south, which seemed to get me even more into the song. The song is possibly geared towards a southern audience seeing as the soldier is portrayed as being from the south. This song is very effective at reminding the pathos about soldier’s morale and makes you realize how unpleasant it must be to be away from home by the lines “pick up my gun and get back to work/and it keeps me drivin’ on” (Lyrics007 13-14). I personally recommend reading then listening to the song.