Adam Weinstein
English 101
2 November 2007
Analysis of “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue”
Lately there have been numerous songs and works of art that portray politics, war, and different situations going on throughout the United States. A major focus on artists these days is the war in Iraq, as well as the events of September, 11th. Songwriter’s lyrics portray their view on the subject. Many agree with the war, and many artists disagree with what is going on. Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” is a depiction of an American’s view of the events that happened on September 11th, the war, and the countries views on terrorists.
In this song, the persona is reacting to events of September 11th, interpreting an American’s view on the whole situation, and the views of certain people in America. The persona in this song is an everyday citizen of the United States. He is a citizen because he says,
“Justice will be served/ And the battle will rage/This big dog will fight/When you rattle his cage/And youll be sorry that you messed with/The u.s. of a/cause well put a boot in your ass/Its the american way” (LyricsFreak 33-40).
At the beginning of the song, the persona also mentions American girls and guys recognizing and saluting the American flag, aslo known as Old Glory (LyricsFreak 1, 4).This persona is pro-war because they say that we will fight when someone “shakes our cage” or, in a sense, bothers or harms our country. We will also fight back, and “put a boot in your ass”. This citizen is also very patriotic. He or she supports their country, and the actions of the country. The speaker is willing to support the counrty, and is trying to get others to support the country as well.
The audience in “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” is the terrorists that attacked our country. The persona is telling them that they better beware, because what they have done they can not take back, and soon enough, they will regret it. In the song, the speaker says,
“Man, its gonna be hell/When you hear mother freedon.Start ringin her bell/And it feels like the whole wide world is raining down on you/Brought to you courtesy of the red white and blue”(LyricsFreak 28-32).
Also, the persona is talking to the people who support the war, and feel the same way as him or her. The person talking in the song says, “American girls, and American guys/We’ll always stand up and salute/We’ll always recognize/When we see old glory flying”(LyricsFreak 1-4). Here, the speaker is talking to the people of the United States saying that we will always stand and salute the people in the war, and the people who lost their lives when we see the flag flying.
In this song, the persona is trying to get people excited and pumped up for the war. He says things to get the people of the United States emotions stirring, and get them supporting the war such as, “Soon as we could see clearly/Through our big black eye/Man, we lit up your world/Like the fourth of July”(LyricsFreak 19-22). This person’s goal is to gain people in the fight against Terrorism. The speaker uses tacticts that stir angry and patriotic feelings to get this excitement about the war started.
In the rhetorical triangle, the persona uses all three of the points. He uses Pathos to evoke emotion in the audience. In the song it says, “Cause we’ll put a boot in your ass/It’s the American way”(LyricsFreak 39-40). This is a way to get Americans mad about what happened, and excited to go to war. Another point in the rhetorical triangle is ethos. This is when the speaker is trying to gain credibility. In this song, the persona says, “My daddy served in the army/Where he lost his right eye/But he flew a flag out in our yard/Until the day that he died”(LyricsFreak 8-11). The speaker is trying to gain credibility in the subject of war. Since his dad fought and lost an eye, people are more likely to believe this person, because he has experienced the effects of war first hand. The last point of the triangle is logos. This point is based on an argument or logic. It is also based on cause and effect. In this song, the speaker mentions that a “big dog will fight when you raddle his cage”. This is a cause and effect in logos. For example, when someone raddles the United States’ cage, we are most likely going to fight back.
The purpose of this song being so political, is to gain the strength of the American public towards the war. The persona wants to get the United States excited and ready for the war. They use a very “invincible” tone to explain our country, proving that we will win this fight, never give up, and the terrorists should have thought twice before attacking our homeland.
All in all, “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” by Toby Keith is a portrayal of an American citizen’s reactions towards the war and September 11th. This song is one of many that describe people’s feelings and emotions aimed near terrorists, the Middle East, and the war on Iraq. “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” is an extreme example of a pro-war persona depicted angry towards the Middle East and searching for revenge. This song, in my opinion, is not very effective. It gets people “pumped” for the war, but only for those four or so minutes it is playing. After it is over, I do not think about the words all day, or even put any thought past that song. It is, however, a good song, and does make me proud to be an American as well as remind me how lucky that I am to live in a free country.
Works Cited
"Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue." LyricsFreak. 1 Nov 2007
3 comments:
I believe that you have very good ideas, but it’s very hard to understand how you back your ideas up with the way you have organized your paper. You seem to like to jump from one point you want to make clear and switch to another different point and then you go back to your first point you try to make. There are some little style errors I believe that also could be fixed. Though it was not enough to where I couldn’t understand what you were meaning, it would tremendously help your paper. The only main thing I would say is work on some of the organization on where you place your quotes from the from the writers lyrics. Other than that the papers ideas were very well thought out and I believe with these few points fixed you can have a great paper. Good luck on your final revision!
I really enjoyed this essay. You did a very good job integrating quotes from the song into the paper; this makes it a lot easier on the reader because you give them concrete examples to back up your statements. The content of your paper is very good too. You cover almost every topic and aspect of the song, which is great. However there are a couple of things that you could work on.
First, is your thesis. Your ideas in the first paragraph are very good, however they seem to be a bunch of ideas thrown together; try organizing those ideas and making them into a thesis statement. Second, is your organization. Like I said before, your statements are very good; but in a few instances they seem to be out of place or too choppy. Lastly, there are instances in your paper where I feel that your thoughts are not complete. I can see where you are developing an idea but you don’t finish it out.
Some certain examples that I saw were, in the last sentence in your first paragraph, you say “He is a citizen because he says…” The quote does tell how he is a citizen, but how? You need to explain to the audience the answer instead of making them figure it out for themselves. Another thing I think would benefit your paper would be to combine a few of your paragraphs. You have two paragraphs on the audience; it would make the paper flow better if you combined the two paragraphs since they talk about the same idea. This would make the paper less choppy. Overall though, the paper was very good. It covered all the ideas that needed to be covered. GOOD JOB!
SARAH R-GROUP 4
Hey Meredith,
Your paper was good, but needs some work. You used your quotes effectively, but at times you left them to defend themselves. Also I was a bit confused your thesis did not say what side you were taking or the point you were trying to get across. Therefore as I read your paper I felt you were leaning one way, but at the end you went to opposite. I feel that if you would clarify from the beginning of how you took the song, then you would be able to go through and your following paragraphs would show this.
The most important things your paper needs to make it successful are clarity, detail, and organization. If you moved a few paragraphs around it would have a lasting effect on your paper. When you state that nobody really takes action after hearing the song, go into more detail and tell me how and why they do not. Overall you have a good idea just think on it some more and add it to. Good luck.
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