Song Analysis Of John Prine's Sam Stone

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John Prine’s “Sam Stone”

In war, there are no unwounded soldiers - Jose Narosky.

An estimation of about 2.6 million men served in the Vietnam war, but only a several hundred thousand of them came home. While some soldiers who returned were successful with the transition of returning back to the civilian life, many others did not. In John Prine’s anti war song, “Sam Stone”, he sings about the life of a man who goes home to his family and gets addicted to drugs.

To start off, the title of the song is “Sam Stone.” Many might think that this is just an ordinary name that Prine thought of randomly, but it actually has a little more significance to it. The last name, Stone, symbolizes that this character becomes a drug addict, or a stoner, after the war. Also, a few people may think that Sam Stone was an actual person that Prine based his character off of, but in reality Sam Stone was influenced by a couple of men Prine knew that from the Vietnam War ("Sam Stone by John Prine Songfacts"). …show more content…

There were many who protested against the Vietnam war that when soldiers returned, they were spat on and treated with bitterness (“Sam Stone Lyrics”). In the song, Prine also sings, “With a purple heart and a monkey on his back,” to hint to his listeners that Sam was a soldier wounded in the Vietnam war who was awarded the Purple Heart. Also, the phrase, “to have a monkey on one’s back” means to have a drug addiction (“Sam Stone (song)”). So, as a result of the psychological and physical pain, many veterans turned to drugs and eventually became

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