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A Change Is Humble Come Rhetorical Devices

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Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” became an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement. This song expresses his struggles “as a black man in 1960's American society" (Digication). This song is mournful yet optimistic at the same time. He writes about discrimination, but also how he believes that there will be change. The take away from this song is that during the Civil Rights Movement the black community could not live a life without fear because people were experiencing frequent racial discrimination and African Americans were scared that they would be lynched (ShieldSquare). “A Change is Gonna Come” has been recognized as Cooke’s greatest compositions because of the impact it made in the Civil Rights Movement. There were many reasons why Cooke decided to compose this song. One of the events that encouraged him was the killing of four girls in the bombing of a black church in Birmingham, Alabama. This showed him further about how bad …show more content…

An example of this is when he sings “I go to the movie And I go downtown And somebody keep telling me ‘Don't hang around’"(Genius). This shows how African Americans were treated and how they were scared to go anywhere. They were not accepted in many places and this reveals that. At the beginning of the song he sings “I was born by the river In a little tent Oh, and just like the river, I've been running Ever since” (Genius). This again shows how African Americans never felt like they could just be. Cooke is saying that since he was born, he was always having to run away from problems that he did not cause. Another part that stood out was when he wrote “There been times that I thought I couldn't last for long But now, I think I'm able To carry on” (Genius). This part shows that he has hope for the future and that if he keeps pushing he will see change. The lyrics in the song and the tone he used is what really pushed this song to be an

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