Is This Land Really Mine?

Is This Land Really Mine?

The song This Land Is Your Land by Woody Guthrie is one that has great historical and psychological value. The song has shed light on one of the United States poorest times and gave one a sense of belonging to a nation where most everyone lived with a common set of beliefs. Was the original intent of the song for everyone and why was it written? The “American Dream” seemed to be just that, a dream to those people who had not fully recovered from the financial crisis of the Great Depression.

This Land Is Your Land was originally written in 1940 while Guthrie was hitchhiking across the country. While traveling, he grew a distaste for the song God Bless America and decided to write a song protesting it. To him God Bless America seemed to provide America with false hope coming off the heels of an economic crisis. In an omitted verse Guthrie song, “In the squares of the city, In the shadow of the steeple: By the relief office, I’d seen my people. As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking, Is this land made for you and me?” (Guthrie) He only could viewed the world from his reality of what was going on with his family and community. The verse was removed because it was deemed controversial to point out the harsh realities of the time.

The intention of this song was to evoke feelings of patriotism. Guthrie was quoted saying, “I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you.” (Guthrie)

But the same song can easily have the opposite effect if you did not fit the perceived American mold. Even though the song was written as a political statement against God Bless America, it still was not “all citizen” inclusive. The intention was for those who were full citizens and not for those who were considered to be anything less. The indigenous Americans and forcibly imported Americans were always the last to be thought of or not at all when it came to making laws. During their search of some of the same job opportunities, they were not to be hired until all White Americans had jobs first.

Back then big companies had taken land and natural resources for profit and communities thrived because there were jobs available. Communities sprouted where the opportunity for work lay. Companies often paid employees healthy wages but once the natural