“Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” is a simple song, but the lyrics make it very powerful and really touch your heart. Based during the Great Depression era, this song was written about the struggle that the song writer went through just to get a job and to survive. Some of the jobs he mentions are working on the railroad, building dams, etc. Just by looking at the title, we can already learn quite a bit. He uses the word “Brother”, which seems to be referring to the people he is asking for help. He calls them his “brothers" because he knows that they are going through the same struggle that he is. But, because he is so desperate, he still feels like he needs to ask them for their help. Now, we can look at “Can you spare a dime?”. I believe that …show more content…
You can tell that the writer was constantly looking for and doing hard jobs. He was working hard and earning money, and was expecting peace and glory to come from it. But, he never truly understood why he had to accept the handouts given to him. In the final lines of the song, you can see that jobs were running out, meaning that the writer didn’t have a job anymore. Because he didn’t have any work, he started to ask people for a dime. This line in the song, “Once in khaki suits, gee, we looked swell, Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum, Half a million boots went slogging through Hell, And I was the kid with the drum”, has a lot of meaning. It shows that the writer wasn’t always poor and that he could afford Khaki suits once, but now he has to go through the same struggle that “half a million” other people go through. The final line “Oh, say, don't you remember? They called me ‘Al’, It was 'Al' all the time, Say, don't you remember? I'm your pal, Buddy, can you spare a dime?”, also has quite a bit of meaning. It shows that because the Great Depression took everything away from everyone, the writer’s friends don’t even recognize him anymore. This shows how hard of a time the Great Depression
...from the dullness of schoolwork to many possibilities. The next lines poke fun at the value of education and celebrate their street learning. ?Lurk late,? ?Strike straight,? ?Sing sin,? and ?Thin gin,? contradict any possibility for mental growth. Symbolism comes in the picture in the next line, ?We Jazz June,? which has many meanings. The word ?Jazz? signifies sexual intercourse. Then the word ?June? becomes a female. The tone of the poem dramatically changes when the reader learns the dropouts die soon. The group end in the last line, ?Die soon,? the final consequence of trying to be cool. Seemingly having fun in the beginning being cool, they are now completely powerless because they are dead. The poem really gives an obvious picture of what young African-American males are driven to do under the impression of trying to be cool. Since their minds are headed straight to corruption, they have no clue because they are having so much fun being cool. Leaving school, staying out late, singing sin, drinking alcohol, and having sex apparently are the only things that are important to them. With this mentality, more and more inner city males while continue hastening toward their death.
In the song he states, “I can plow a field all day long/ I can catch catfish from dusk ‘till dawn/ We make our on whiskey and our own smoke, too/ Ain’t too many things these old boys can’t do.” In addition, He stated, “But he was killed by a man with a switchblade knife/ For 43 dollars my friend lost his life/ I’d love to spit some beech nut in that dude’s eyes/ And shoot him with my old 45.” The author is really trying to persuade everyone that they can do pretty much anything to live on their own because that is how they are raised and that if you mess with one of them; you got it coming your way.
In the image, the box in the left bottom corner reads: Handle with Care. This ironically shows how uncared for this man is, as well as fragile. This also shows how he does not have family around him unlike the people in the back of the photo. Another satirical thing that can be observed is the name on the boxes which is Jerzees. This is a less expensive sports company. This shows how the man can not afford Nike, Adidas, or any other expensive name brand sports gear, which is a constant reminder of what he can not have. The viewer can also see a Burger King sign in the back of the image. The Burger King slogan does not apply to this social class at all. The sign incongruously reminds the reader how the homeless man can not “have it his way”. Peterson’s use of ironic statements makes the viewer think about every time they have walked pass a homeless person and didn’t stop to see if he or she was alright. On a daily basis, people are faced with challenging financial times and often people in prospering areas persistently neglect the unquestionable struggle of the less
In Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, the relationships between whites and blacks are a main theme. Throughout the whole novel Morrison adds her own opinions toward the race problems that the characters of Not Doctor Street experience. Poverty is another big issue in the novel and many of the main characters struggle financially. Money becomes a means of escape for many of the characters, especially Milkman and Guitar. For both men their quests for gold leaves them empty handed, but their personalities changed. Milkman’s quest was to be independent, especially since he was still living with his parents. Milkman however, was not poor. His family was considered one of the most financially comfortable black families in town. He was the spoiled son and it was galling but easy to work for his father, easy to be waited on hand and foot by his mother and sisters, far easier than striking out on his own. So his idea of freedom was not really one of working to support himself, but simply having easy money given to him, and not having to give anything to anyone in return. It was his father Macon Jr. who informed Milkman of the possibility of Pilate having millions of dollars in gold wrapped in a green tarp that was suspended from her ceiling. The hidden gold was in Milkman’s opinion his only ticket out of Not Doctor Street, his way of having his own possessions, being free from his parents lending hand. For Guitar it was a way to escape and fund his Seven Days mission.
It starts by describing a young woman in college, stating, “she has no idea what she’s doing in college, the major she majored in don’t make no money, she won’t drop out, her parents will look at her funny (West).” By doing this the song establishes that this woman wants success but she doesn’t know how to obtain it since she was basically pushed into pursuing a career in college that she was unsure of in order to obtain success. The song furthers the story of the woman when she states that she gives up and goes on to say that her tuition money is enough to buy a few pairs of new shoes. The desire for success and frustration of not being able to achieve it, is what essentially leads the woman to take this shortcut of dropping out of school to acquire material possessions in the “now” instead of the slower, more standard route of finishing her education and finding success through that. Kanye West then describes in the song his addiction to material possessions when he began to acquire wealth from his music career.
Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Enrenreich, is a novel written about her experiences while living and working among the common poor folk of America. Her adventures bring her from a restaurant in Ohio to the coasts of Maine to a Wal-Mart in Minnesota. Although her living and working locations change, one thing stays constant about Barbara her humorous and witty remarks. These remarks keep the reader entertained. Although her wisecracks are clever, they seem to at many times go too far, and have a tendency to be offensive, but this does not take away from the fact that these remarks greatly increase the validity of her arguments.
Fortunate son is a song by a band name Creedence Clearwater Revival. The song talks about the difference between kids that belongs to rich families and kids that belongs to poor families. In the verse writer says, “Some folks are born, silver spoon in hand”. Kids that were born in a wealthy family stay rich. They can do whatever they want just because they are rich. In the song, the singer also talks about how the kids that belong to rich families do not have to join the military. They can go to college and get a degree on a full time study. However, kids that belong to poor families are forced to join the army and fight for the country. Rich kids are privileged but poor kids are not.
When Danny Clark got home from his tour he didn’t what would happen because his house burned down with his younger brother in it. He didn’t know how he was going to get to his medical appointments or get a new house for that matter. He had no way of getting his money out the bank with no car and nowhere to live, he didn't know what to do.
by 1000's of people stuck in the slums of America. Could the lyrics from these kind of songs
Culture Centers in Higher Education: Perspectives on Identity, Theory, and Practice is a powerful and enlightening book by Lori D. Patton. Patton is a higher education scholar who focuses on issues of race theories, African American experiences on college campuses, student development theories, campus environments, inclusion, and multicultural resources centers at higher education institutions. She has a variety of publications and was one of the first doctoral students to complete a dissertation that focused exclusively on Black culture centers entitled, “From Protest to Progress: An Examination of the Relevance, Relationships and Roles of Black Culture Centers.” In Campus Culture Centers in Higher Education Patton collaborates with many higher education scholars and faculty members to discuss various types of racial and ethnic culture centers in higher education, their overall effectiveness, relevance, and implications for improvement in relation to student retention and success. Diversity, inclusion and social justice have become prevalent issues on all college campuses, and this piece of literature gives a basic introduction for individuals unfamiliar with cultural resource centers. This book successfully highlights contributions of culture centers and suggestions for how centers can be reevaluated and structured more efficiently. For many faculty, administrators, and student affairs professionals unfamiliar with the missions and goals of culture centers, Patton’s text provides a concrete introduction and outline for the functionality of these resources and also offers recommendations and improvements for administrators managing multicultural centers.
Living in the Chicago Southside, Walter’s family faces some harsh living conditions. Even as much as fifty cents becomes a luxury option for the couple. This is depicted when Travis, Walter’s son, says “This is the morning we supposed to bring the fifty cents to school”, while Ruth, Walter’s wife and Travis’ mother, responds abruptly with “Well, I ain’t got no fifty cents this morning” (p.1295). In this excerpt, the author is emphasizing on two details about the Youngers: first, the value of frugality and the situation that even little money cannot be spent for wants, such as education; second, the family’s financial condition is highly unstable, because Hansberry accents that in a certain morning the famil...
Unlike Becket and Hirsch, who use physical and mental ties, Kendrick Lamar in his song “How Much a Dollar Cost” uses a story in which he learns a moral lesson and from that heavenly and spiritual ties to all of humanity. Firstly Lamar asks, “How much a dollar really cost? The question is detrimental, paralyzin' my thoughts” (Source O). Here Lamar ponders the true value of money. Later, when he meets an old, homeless man and he asks for a dollar he immediately stereotypes the old man to be a drug addict and refuses to give the homeless man money. In verse four, we see Lamar becoming angry. He believes that it was a sign of disrespect that a man asked him for money because Lamar worked so hard to get where he is now. But there is a shift in Lamar’s
The 1930’s and 1940’s were years in which the world was seriously concerned about economy. In 1929, The United States, the world’s economical power, was one of the most affected nations by the great depression: its unemployment rate rose to 25% and the personal income, tax revenue and prices dropped. Many families within the country started to starve and the McCourts were not the exception. Malachy could not get any work to support his family due to the difficult situation in the country, and when he finally found one, he wasted all his wages and money in the pub. Frank’s life in America has good and bad memories. However, the great depression is present in the crisis the family fell into and in the unemployment of Malachy.
The style of the song comes across in a sort of blue collar manner. It sounds as if it’s coming from someone who is a little more down to earth and likes to remove themself from the cutthroat hustle and bustle of corporate America. It’s about how life doesn’t travel in a straight line, it take twists and turns along the way. It’s about how life has its ups and downs so you have to accept that you are going to get behind every once and awhile. So many people in this country become so obsessed with making it to the top of the ladder that they lose sight of what really matters in life. There’s no guarantee that you will live a happier longer life if you concentrate all your efforts on trying to become more “successful” financially, because in the end we’ll all be gone someday. It’s important to slow down sometimes and enjoy the little things in life that are more important, than constantly worrying about the future. If you “play your cards right” you will ...