In America

When I am listening to a song on the radio I normally decide whether I like it or not by the beat or if the chorus is catchy. Most people are similar to me in the fact that they aren’t really paying attention to the words, but people would be really surprised to what they are listening to if they sat down and read the lyrics. When I first listened to “In America” by Charlie Daniels I only got a small part of the message, but when I read the lyrics I understood the whole meaning behind the song.

The speaker in “In America” is a person that is passionate about patriotism in America. You can see this when the speaker says “and then God bless America again”, you can tell they are passionate about America. The speaker is concerned about patriotism being low in America. The speaker says “the eagle’s been flying low”, “the flag’s been flying slow”, and “America’s fixing to fall”. The eagle and the flag are all symbols of freedom and patriotism and if they are flying low and slow that means those specific morals are low in America. Later in the song the speaker is talking about how even though there is some separation among Americans we should come together and stand up for ourselves as a whole country the speaker says, “and we may have done a little bit of fighting amongst ourselves but you outside people best leave us alone.” The “Outside People” are non-American people, you can tell this because earlier in the song the speaker refers to the Russians. The speaker also shows all the different types of people we have in America and refers to “the cowboys and the hippies and the rebels and the yanks”. Theses are all the different people the speaker wants to stand together against the “Outside people”. The speaker mocks the people who have doubts in America being a whole and getting back on track. You can see this when the speaker says “You never did think that we’d ever get together again well we damn sure fooled you we’re walking real proud and we’re talking real loud again in America” and “this lady may have stumbled but she ain’t never fell and if the Russians don’t believe that they can go straight to hell we’re gonna put her feet back on the path of righteousness” . When the speaker says “this lady” it is referring to another one of America’s symbols, the statue of liberty. You can tell this is what is being referred to because a couple of lines before this other symbols of America are brought up like the flag and the eagle. When you put all of the meanings of the lines together you can see that the speaker (a patriot) is saying that people have doubts in America but we can put aside all of our differences and we can be strong again.

There are two types of people that the speaker is talking to in this song. When the speaker says “You never did think it would happen again in America, Did you?” the “you” being spoken about is the people who have doubts in America. These types of people could be people from any other country around the world, but it could also be Americans who are having doubts in their own country. The second type of people is Americans who aren’t really clued in about what is going on. The speaker is informing them that America needs to shape up and bring patriotism back.

The speaker of the song uses ethos and pathos to get the audience’s attention. When using ethos the speaker is simply stating everything that is going on. He/She says that patriotism in low in America and mentions the different types of people that make up America. This is the part of the song that just lets you know what is going on, it doesn’t necessarily make your emotions come out or make you want to do something about it. The speaker then uses pathos to really grab the audience’s attention and make them tune in. In one of the first stanzas the speaker says, “and if the Russians don’t believe that they can all go straight to hell” this verse wakes you up and makes you tune in because they are such strong words. When the speaker says ,”You outside people best leave us alone cause we’ll stick together and you can take that to the bank”, he/she is speaking to two different audiences hence ethos AND pathos. To the audience that has doubts in America he/she is showing them America isn’t going to back down and is trying to get their coward emotion to come and playing on their emotions. To the people that he/she is simply informing what is going on, the speaker is trying to get their anger and pride to come out, this is also ethos. The pathos side is shown when the speaker is trying to show both audiences who the boss is. When the song is taken apart you see that the message the speaker is trying to get across is so important and you can really feel how passionate they are about it.