US History From a Brasilian's Perspective

Youngstown is a song released in 1995 by Bruce Springsteen. He tells the story from a boy’s perspective whose life was changed when natural minerals (ore for one) were found in his town, Youngstown, Ohio. From then on, he was put to work in harvesting the minerals and transforming them into things like cannonballs and weapons for the army to use in war. The whole town is transformed and the work never ceases, even after the workers lose sight of why they were doing it in the first place. This represents the time in history when industrialization spiked and factories seemed to sprout out of the ground. From his tone (gah, DBQ word) he does not seemed saddened or elated. Instead he just seems to be dulled down from all the toil in life and the constant process of work. I thought that this song was a good example of what happened to thousands of people as a result of war, the discovery and collection of natural resources, and possibly even the feeling of always wanting more and more. And what happened to all these people when production stopped (especially when things like war ended)? They were left jobless and penniless until new work was found or more resources, discovered.

The most interesting lines in this song, to me, were the last ones:

"When I die I don’t want no part of heaven,
I would not do heaven’s work well
I pray the devil comes and takes me
to stand in the fiery furnaces of hell"

I was just like, "Dang...."