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Analysis Of Bing Crosby's Song 'Brother, Can You Spare A Dime'

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Both Bing Crosby’s song “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime” and Barbeque Bob’s song “We Sure Got Hard Times” conveys the fact that during the Great Depression, money was hard to come by no matter how successful you once were. It is clear by analyzing both texts that jobs were rare, most likely the cause and the result of high employment rate. In Bing Crosby’s song “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime” the artist used many literary techniques to convey the theme of poverty during the Great Depression and contrast the time before and during the Depression. For example, the repetition of the phrase “Brother, can you spare a dime” and “Buddy can you spare a dime” suggests that the speaker is desperate enough to ask his brothers and strangers for money. Whatsmore, …show more content…

They both also convey the economy at the time. In “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime”, the speaker is shown begging people for money, namely, a dime, while reminiscing the golden times of the past. At the same time, the speaker in “We Sure Got Hard Time” is shown describing the current situation, and while it is unknown if the speaker have a job or not, the song shows how hard it is to find one. The song also describes the economic status of the country. Bacon has gone to a dollar a pound and a well known cash crop, cotton plants, are dropping in value. Both speakers are, in a way, shown with a dislike for all the help the government is giving. The speaker in “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime” was once part of the army, he could see the government as some sort of brother, however in the song, the phrase was repeated many times, and in the end it switched to “Buddy, Can You Spare A Dime”, From this it is evident that the entreat for money from the government was declined many times. The speaker in “We Sure Got Hard Times” is shown singing that just before the election, people were talking about who to vote that might save them from poverty, and yet after the election nothing was changed and now everybody is head down with

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