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Green Day American Idiot Analysis

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For over seventy years America has bought into and celebrated the idea of an American dream. An ideal that sets us apart from all other nations and a story that Americans and immigrants alike have honored for years. This dream has even penetrated its way into pop culture, used by anyone from Toby Keith, to Johnny Cash, to Kanye West to represent their true feelings on America and the dream itself. However, many of these artists fail to capture the whole story with their songs. Despite each of them representing true factors in the dream and American history, biases created by their lives and past block them from being able to recognize the whole story behind the American dream we know today. Green Day, a popular pop punk band is one of those very artists. With one of their latest and most popular albums, American Idiot, they criticize any idea of an American Dream. The album’s featured song American Idiot, written in 2004, is a disapproving to response to the war in Iraq and …show more content…

He uses his song to instill in his listeners that they should honor their country and the dream they’ve made possible. The song takes place in a somewhat shabby old town, "Is this the first time you've been to our little town?" symbolizing the small town working class of America, the root of what the American dream is built on. Cash also focuses on the perseverance that the American Dream encourages, writing, “Because she's been through the fire before and I believe she can take a whole lot more." Part of what Cash respects and emphasizes is is the persistence of each citizen and country. Yet, throughout Cash’s tribute to America’s wartime, he ignores the grim and dirty details of true war, just as he does in his idea of an American dream. Johnny Cash sees the American Dream as one where anyone from a small town or not, can persevere past any battle that comes towards them, just as America has done throughout

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The “American Dream” in this case is symbolic for self-advancement and materialism. He chooses to use this phrasing instead of elaborately describing the climb of the corporate latter or the effects of spending more time at work than with family. Rector’s bridge says, “Are we just running in the dark or living,” which is one of the most evident examples of symbolism in this song. This is his way of saying live with purpose, don’t just conform to society, create your own opinions, and do not be afraid to be different. Unlike prose, he does not have a paragraph to describe his opinions, so he has to be deliberately with every word choice and concise.

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The American Dream is built on the ideal that any citizen of the United States can achieve wealth and success through hard work and perseverance. In the beginning of the novel, Mr. Clutter is characterized as a man who was “always certain of what he wanted from the world” and “had in large measure obtained it” (Capote 6). Due to the fact that he has succeeded in becoming prosperous, he is portrayed as the embodiment of the American Dream itself. The murder of his family had shattered the town’s perspective of the American Dream, as they are forced to face the reality of fate.

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Advertised as the land of the free and a beacon of hope and opportunity, America is a nation where a single ideal has drawn masses of immigrants who conquer difficulties. When one ideal has shaped the history of an entire nation, one must ponder the meaning of the American Dream. The American Dream manifests itself in Christopher McCandless’s journey to the West as chronicled by Jon Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild. It weaves itself into the fabric of every American story, such as that of Maya Angelou’s memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Moreover, it finds itself voiced by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”.

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The “American Dream” is usually thought of as aspiring to change one's life for the better and materially better their situation. We think of it today as going to college and getting a cushy job, but for many in our American history it was much more simple. Many asserted their American dream by declaring their independence. The main similarity was that each had an audacious goal to improve their own life and the lives of some of those around them. Their pursuits of liberty were intimately entwined within the dramatic upheavals taking place in the land recently named America.

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They work hard against many obstacles to try to obtain the so called "American Dream", but it isn’t enough. In the end, America isn’t what they had hoped for as they feel cheated. Internal

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The American Dream of wanting less material goods in order to live a more fulfilling life that is indulged in the natural beauty of the world was the American Dream that McCandless was seeking. Christopher McCandless rejected the American Dream, as it’s traditionally defined in pursuit of a more emotionally and spiritually fulfilling existence free from the social pressures of our materialistic society in the Alaskan wilderness. The irony of McCandless's rejection of the traditional American dream is that he lived such a perfect life. a life many would want to live and achieve as a part of their own American Dream and yet he wanted to remove himself from society's standards. An important part of the traditional American dream is the “perfect American family” which is essentially the family that McCandless grew up in.

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There have been many protest songs in the United States; the freedom of speech has contributed to powerful music and protest words that are written in song. The song that will be discussed throughout this essay is “American Idiot” by Green day. This song speaks volume about the uneducated “America” and puts emphasis on the destruction that reality television is making on the United States of America. Listening to the unspoken word and read between the lies, for that then you will understand. The song “American Idiot” was released during the 2004 presidential election, where George W. Bush was selected into office for the second term as President of the United States of America (source).

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