Carrie Underwood's Song Jesus Take The Wheel

Flannery O’Connor was a southern belle born in Savannah, Georgia in 1925. She was a Catholic girl living in the Bible belt of the country. She lived in “two different worlds” (Meyer, 421); the fictional world that she created for her stories and her personal life. In her stories, she used exciting characters so that she could live through them and live an “interesting” life. She uses her stories to portray totally unanticipated, but totally plausible things. “O’Connor’s stories present complex experiences that cannot be tidily summarized; it takes the entire story to suggest the meanings” (Meyer, 426). She uses her characters to show irony, private experiences, fears, and diverse parallels into her story “Good Country People”.

The song tells the tale of suburban hero, a working class teen without faith or direction. In telling his story, important issues are encountered with a focus on the working class teen. The shallow and hypocritical nature of mainstream media is also touched upon. The music flows between the five parts like a rock opera, and it works with the lyrics to give us a deeper sense of the challenges “Jesus” faces. The song also features a 14-minute music video including dialogue and a shortened version fitting only the song itself, which can give more indication of the song’s intended meaning. In part one, Jesus of Suburbia, we get a background of Jesus’ character, including the fact that he does cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, and cigarettes; and he doesn’t believe there is anything wrong with that. We see he lives with his divorced mother who is often gone. The music to this first act is standard pop punk, consisting of fast power chords, loud lyrics, and stop time. Lead singer Billie Joe delivers lyrics in his traditional full-of-angst fashion, and this reflects the attitude of Jesus. Additionally, the music video shows Jesus breaking up with a girlfriend and proceeding to have sex with multiple intoxicated girls and do hard drugs in a run-down area. In this section we see into the life of someone we might not want to even think about as well-off students at a good university. Though we don’t necessarily connect with Jesus yet, it is easy to pity his situation. After a few chords and two drum fills, we move on to the second

Tracy Chapman’s song, Fast Car, is an emotional song about a woman whose mother ran away leaving her to take care of an alcoholic father. In the song, the women dreams of a better life; one where she will be whisked away by her boyfriend in his fast car. We can see how hopeful she is; she thinks things will turn out better for her. She will live a good life and move to the suburbs, but as the song progresses, we see her life is clearly not turning out the way she planned. She pays the bills and takes care of the kids while her boyfriend (who may be her husband at this point) is unemployed and drinks all the time. It’s pretty sad, she dreamed of having a better life than what her mother had but instead finds herself living a parallel one.

The poem, “Gospel” by Philip Levine gives a vivid description of what the narrator sees around them. The narrator focuses their description on nature. They make many references to types of plants like lupine and thistles. Throughout the poem, nature can be seen as and abstract creature. Nature is giving and lively. The conflict in the poem is between the speaker and nature. The narrator tries to show how nature can give nice outdoor views and how the earth gives people a place to walk on while people give nothing back to nature. Levine’s speaker uses repetition and comparisons to show how nature is constantly pleading for the narrators attention yet they cannot offer anything to the relationship they have with nature. The poem slowly evolves

The piece is classified as Aboriginal Australian literature. It was published in the 1960’s. The purpose of the text is to give hope in a new beginning after the events involving the racial tension between the Aboriginals and the white settlers. The poem is directed to the Aboriginal people of Australia who suffered from these events

I thought if I could touch this place or feel it, this brokenness inside me might start healing. out here its like i'm someone else, I thought that maybe I could find myself if I could just come in I swear i'll leave. won't take nothing but a memory from the that built me. Some of you might know what song this is the chorus of. This paper is about how my life relates to Miranda Lambert's song The House That Built Me.

“Being Country” just those two words together come with many discussions, but the book brings another discussion. This book “Being Country” by Bobbie Ann Mason honestly had me thinking and wondering if everybody’s perspective about changes in life is the same. The main outlooks I took from this book was; When your surroundings have changed your identity will also, Sometimes a reflection of the past can help your future, and whoever you are going to be will not change.

In her book, “Good Country People,” Flannery O’Connor shows first hand how one cannot judge a book by its cover… not even a Bible. Even though a façade is put on, one realizes how vulnerable Hulga Hopewell actually is. Her encounter with a Bible salesman, Manley Pointer, shows how one cannot trust even “good country people” (2). Symbolism in this story transforms what one perceives the character of Hulga and Manley to be and allows the reader to make deeper connections about their physical and mental flaws.

Faith Ringgold’s God Bless America is an expression of the emotional and physical torment of black Americans prior to and during the Civil Rights Movement. This piece of art movement had a lot of cultural ties to the population during the 1960’s that also can be applied today in the year 2001. Through the description of medium, subject matter, form, and style I will relate this piece of history and the signfigance of what this composition means to me today.

The most prevalent issue observed in the lyrics and music videos was gender and sexuality. This was in issue that was present and reoccurring in all of the top songs but occurred in different ways. This was no surprise though because we live “In a culture where sex and gender are centrally important” (2015; 73). The issue arises in the genre of music because of the way gender and sexuality is presented. In the top song “Die a Happy Man’ by Thomas Rhett, objectification was presented in both the lyrics and the music video. In the lyrics he says “Baby that red dress brings me to my knees, Oh but black dress makes it hard to break” and goes on to say “You’re a saint, you’re a Goddess, the cutest, the hottest, a master piece” (lyrics). It seems that his goal is to complement her, but he is objectifying her by judging her femininity (2015; 203). He also does this in the music video by having the girl in a bikini the whole time. Not only was the women objectified, but Thomas exposed a stereotypical relationship consequence. In modern society men tend to make a stereotype that they have to give up everything to be with a woman. Thomas did this in his lyrics when he talks about how he could “never get to see the Northern lights” or “never get to build my mansion in Georgia or drive a sports car up the coast of California” (lyrics). The second song was “Strip It Down” by Luke Bryan. In this song Luke definitely introduces gender roles in both the lyrics and the video. The song

At first glance and after reading through Amazing Grace, it seems that Jonathan Kozol is going to take us on a journey through the lives of the underprivileged, but similar to the ones you read about, or hear in the news. However, this is not the case; the real underlying theme seems to be how the life and society they live in is very alike to a life in a prison, not because it talks explicitly about prison conditions in this area, but also because their lives are portrayed as being a prison. Kozol uses the views of children and adults throughout this book to emphasize this theme through their living conditions and personal lives, background and struggles.

For first-generation students, their college experiences are knowing what they don't know. In the article "Taking My Parents To College", Jennine Crucet, says that it's harder for first-generation students to believe that their families have left. Some may argue that as soon as your parent leave you soon then realize that you are on your own, however, Crucet says In the article "perhaps because, when you're the first in your family to go to college, you never truly feel like they've let you go". First- generation college student they go to college knowing what they don't know.

In his book God Behaving Badly David Lamb examines difficult texts in the Old Testament and tries to answer the hard questions that arise from those readings. In my own examination of Lamb’s God Behaving Badly I will look at a few of the- questions and difficult texts that I found most interesting. Specifically, I will examine Lamb’s response to God 's anger, apparent lack of concern for race and genocide, and violence in the Old Testament, and I will offer my own response.

Denise Giardina, the author of, “Storming Heaven” does an exquisite job of using the point of view from four different narrators’ point of view to portray the story of the lives of the miners’. The use of the different point of views from Cincinnatus a socialist, Rondal a union organizer, Carrie a nurse, and Rosa an Italian immigrant is a brilliant idea to show the different impacts among several individuals and give different moods and views throughout the different narration. The story takes place in a mining community in a rural town in southwestern West Virginia. She uses the five senses to paint a picture and make it feel as if the readers are one of the many individuals within the story. Giardina does a superb job of using the abuses of the miners and stooges to show how his or her lives were and what caused the uprising in 1921. She uses the oppression of the workers’ to create a sympathetic mood amongst the readers. The way Denise Giardina portrays the atrocities that occur during the events within the story, shows how the coal companies treat the coal miners and how the companies don’t care about whether their workers or their children die.

Randy Newman’s book, Questioning Evangelism, is a book about on how evangelizing is to ask questions, and therefore, letting people communicate with questions about their own truths about God. Newman writes this book hoping that anyone who reads it will gain a better understanding of what evangelism is. Newman’s book is divided into three parts: why questioning evangelism is needed, considering what questions non-believers are asking, and observing why asking questions and knowing answers doesn’t mean a Christian’s own problem like cold-heartedness or anger. Throughout the book Newman brings readers right back to bible scriptures. Even though he appeals to accounts of people like Paul in Acts preaching on Mars Hill, he also shows how the wisdom literature is applied to our evangelistic attempts.