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Analysis of "America Reloading" Poem

The song 'America Reloading' addresses gun violence through fast-paced and direct lyrics, creating a tone of anger and incredulity about the normalization of school shootings. It employs space-themed metaphors and literary devices like similes and imagery to evoke empathy for victims and survivors. The author critiques societal complacency while expressing a desire for clarity on the symbolism used in the song.

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kaurmunseerut
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308 views1 page

Analysis of "America Reloading" Poem

The song 'America Reloading' addresses gun violence through fast-paced and direct lyrics, creating a tone of anger and incredulity about the normalization of school shootings. It employs space-themed metaphors and literary devices like similes and imagery to evoke empathy for victims and survivors. The author critiques societal complacency while expressing a desire for clarity on the symbolism used in the song.

Uploaded by

kaurmunseerut
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

The first impression I had of the song 'America reloading' was that it was very direct and

fast-paced, as the song jumped from example to example leaving the reader very little time to
absorb the impact of each example. This set the stage for a very hard-hitting and direct way of
addressing the issue of gun violence presented within the song. This sentiment was only
bolstered by the tone which was very clinically honest. The fast nature of the lyrics gave an
impression that the song almost bordered on the edge of anger which was further highlighted
when the author used an example from their own life with the verse "My friend, a second grade
teacher,/ is instructed to practice hiding her children/ in the closet" (Gibson, 35-38). I chose to
interpret these lyrics as incredulity over the fact that school shootings are so normalized that
there are protocols and drills that teachers follow. Following this train, a tone of accusation is
also very prominent within the lyrics, one of them even directly calling out citizens for their
complacency with the sentence "But we can, can't we America?" (Gibson, 25). Something else
that immediately jumped out to me within the song was the usage of space themed metaphors
and symbolism within the text. It was very clear that each space reference had meaning as
definitions of space and astronauts were told directly to the reader as the US and the NRA with
lines like "Do the NRA's tears not drop / because they're astronauts" (Gibson, 20). However
there were many metaphors and assumptions you had to make, such as what a black hole or
what the moon represented based on the context within the text, yet even then there were many
contradictions so it felt as if this part I was analyzing was really just me grasping at straws
instead of actually understanding what the author was trying to convey with the symbolism. I
would have really liked to know what the author had in mind for what each space entity was
meant to symbolize. The song's tone, pacing, and symbolism all contribute to its powerful
message against gun violence. The song explores the usage of many literary devices, but the
ones I found most impacted were the symbolism, similes and metaphors and the imagery. In
fact, the song starts with a simile stating that "Space smells like a barbecue/And
gunpowder/Space smells like the United States"(Gibson 2-4). This similes not only use imagery
by engaging the senses with smell, with the smell of gunpowder is commonly associated with
guns and the smell of barbecue indicate burnt flesh or meat, both of which can be used in the
context of a school shooting as both can be associated with fear. The symbolism within the
imagery and similes serve to further evoke empathy for school shooting victims and survivors
from the reader by creating a picture of the harsh realities these people have lived or died
through.

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