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God Blessed America Rhetorical Devices

Decent Essays

Shelby Shanks
History 1302

God Blessed America?

On October 29, 1929, also known as “Black Tuesday”, was a day in history no one will ever forget. It was the day the stock market crashed.

Folk singer Woody Guthrie experienced the great depression first hand. His family went from middle class to dire poverty in the 1920’s and 1930’s. He wrote this song after traveling the world and witnessing the awful effects of the Great Depression. Originally called “God Bless America” this song was a response to Irving Berlin’s song also called “God Bless America”, he believed that this song was unrealistic and smug. The tone of this song one could say is very sarcastic, because if god really did bless America things like the great depression would not be happening. For example, at the end of his song when he, “saw my people, As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if [God blessed America for me.]” …show more content…

The Great depression was known as the greatest economic disaster in modern history. The world during this time was crashing just like the stock market. People were starving; In Give Me Liberty, Eric Foner explains, “In Detroit, 4,000 children stood in bread lines each day seeking food.” If starving was not bad enough, most people were evicted from their homes. They were forced to live in ramshackle shantytowns, also called Hoovervilles (after President Hoover), which arose in abandoned parks and

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