This Land Is My Land Analysis

This Land Is My Land, based on American Inequality Woodrow Wilson Guthrie formerly known as “Woody Guthrie” named after Woodrow Wilson governor of New Jersey and soon to be elected president of the United States. Guthrie wasn’t much of a poet, but best known as an American folksong artist. His hit “This Land Is Your Land” (Guthrie 234) is well known to many Americans as America’s most famous folksong. In 1940, the song was originally titled “God Blessed America for me”. Blake mentions “Less recognized are his contributions to the Communist press, especially his writings for the San Francisco-based People's World newspaper, for which he composed a regular column and cartoons for eighteen months” (Blake 184). Many also argued that this song should have been adopted as the American national anthem. It’s also known to young American children as a melody. This melody is sung to an existing tune of “When the World’s on Fire” by The Carter Family. Guthrie had written this song as a critical response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”. Guthrie had gone tired of hearing the song on the radio and had wanted to simply respond in an irritated form of radical protest on how he really felt about America and its communitarianism.

He had scribbled “This Land Is My Land” (Guthrie 234) was first inspired by his visit to California. It was a line he wrote based on the radical government he witness and questioned if America were indeed treating their citizens equally? “This land is your land, This land is my land, from California to the New York islands. From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters, this land was made for you and me.” (Guthrie 234) This entire poem also is influenced by what he had endured as a young boy growing up and seeing his family suffer through The Great