“The Last Ten Years(Superman)” Sang By: Kenny Rogers Presentation By: Tierra Scott The Novelistic, Dramatic Approach All the U.S can do is sit by Superman is found dead and there’s and watch as the super nobody to save the U.S. villain destroys the U.S. Nobody could come to the rescue Takes place in the U.S. and the villain got away with his and happens over a period of ten years. Terrible deeds including the A man wanders where superman has been destruction of the twin towers. because terrible things have been happening in the U.S. The lesson given from this song is that even though we think something could never happen, it’s always a possibility and it affects us all. The song talks about all these events that have happened, even losing superman. Superman is suppose to be indestructible, but even he has died. Every time the author mentions an event that has taken place over the years he always says “we watched”. We watched as a whole when these events took place and nobody was alone. He is saying none of us do this by ourselves. For example, he says “we all cried when we watched those towers fall”. He means we cried together when the twin towers got hit. Nobody would have ever thought somebody would attack the U.S. At one point he says “what’s gonna happen next is anybody’s guess” and later on he says “it’s all become a part of who we are”. This means that we don’t always know what’s going to happen and the unthinkable has become a part of us. The Realistic Approach This song relates to me well. I remember when I was in third grade, it was 2001, the twin towers in New York fell. The song says “we all cried when we watched those towers fall”. This is true in my case. Even though I was only eight years old I still remember crying. It seems like it was only yesterday. I didn’t know any of those people who were in the planes or even in the towers, but I knew it was terrorists who had done it and all I could do was cry. My whole class that day was in tears. I didn’t really understand why I was crying, but I knew it was for a good reason. Many of the events in the song I can remember, but not as well as those towers falling. The Thematic Approach The setting takes place in the U.S. and the speaker is an anonymous man waiting for somebody to save the United States from the super villian. The protagonist is Superman who is suppose to save everybody, but the villian has captured him and he is found dead. The antagonist is the super villian who has not only destroyed the U.S., but has also destroyed the one man who was never suppose to die. Oklahoma got bombed, a U.S. president got caught, and the twin towers fell. The final outcome is nobody knows how to stop the villian and we’ve lost the person who was suppose to be the strongest. What people don’t realize is the villian is actually the world itself. The Allusion Approach Superman an allusion to Finny The song is an allusion to a separate peace. Superman is Finny. Superman and Finny both are godlike and when they are around everything is at peace. When superman isn’t around everything is destroyed and everybody’s in a panic. Although everybody might not be in a panic when Finny isn’t around, there’s still some type of uneasiness. When Superman was gone the twin towers fell and Oklahoma was bombed. When Finny is gone the boys that go to Devon don’t get along as well. Superman in the song and Finny in A Separate Peace, are the peace keepers and the strong. They both die in the end. The Musical Approach A Oh, the last ten years, it's been A Well, the last ten years, look at quite trip the hills we've climbed A Over thirty-six-hundred spins A The best golfer's black, the best around without a cosmic slip rapper's white an' it's about B But within the realm of our damn time atmosphere B But we best beware, there's a B We're 'bout as out of whack as brand new fight, you see we've ever been in a million C An' I hate to say we might be years our own worst enemy C We watched the Y2K scare in a D We watched Oklahoma sifting panic through the damage D An' we watched as time proved E An' we watched a US President Nostrodamus wrong get caught E An' we watched as Mother F We watched shareholders watch Nature shook the planet their savings vanish F An' cellular replaced the G We all cried when we watched telephone those towers fall G We lost Charlie Brown, Ray H We lost Minnie Pearl, Ron Charles an' Johnny Cash Reagan and Sam I Am H We even lost Superman, mhm. I We even lost Superman, mhm. A Expensive gas an' free A In the last ten years downloads B We lost George Harrison, B The dot-com boom, an' John Paul and June Carter- reality shows Cash C What's gonna happen next C Hell, we even lost Superman is anybody's guess D Gonna miss you. Chris... D Satellite radio and hybrid cars D Hand-held computers an' a trip to Mars D It's all become a part of who we are E In the last ten years. During most of the poem the author uses mostly anapest, amphibrach, and dactyl. Also, he used trimeter and pentameter. It stays constant through the whole song.The author used a lot of alliteration through out the song. He used it to emphasize the important lines, so the reader would pay close attention to them. He uses it most often on the words we and watched. There’s a big importance about those words he wanted us to understand. He wanted us to understand that nobody was alone and that everybody watched together the events that have happened over the last ten years. Alliteration is used in most of the places to highlight the events he talked about. The English Teacher Approach Oh, the last ten years, it's been quite a trip Over thirty-six-hundred spins around without a cosmic slip But within the realm of our atmosphere We're 'bout as out of whack as we've ever been in a million years We watched the Y2K scare in a panic An' we watched as time proved Nostrodamus wrong An' we watched as Mother Nature shook the planet An' cellular replaced the telephone We lost Charlie Brown, Ray Charles an' Johnny Cash We even lost Superman, mhm. Well, the last ten years, look at the hills we've climbed The best golfer's black, the best rapper's white an' it's about damn time But we best beware, there's a brand new fight, you see An' I hate to say we might be our own worst enemy We watched Oklahoma sifting through the damage An' we watched a US President get caught We watched shareholders watch their savings vanish We all cried when we watched those towers fall We lost Minnie Pearl, Ron Reagan and Sam I Am We even lost Superman, mhm. Anaphora= blue Repition= underline Alliteration= aqua Personification= italicized and bold Internal Rhyme= pink Idiom= green Expensive gas an' free downloads The dot-com boom, an' reality shows What's gonna happen next is anybody's guess Satellite radio and hybrid cars Hand-held computers an' a trip to Mars It's all become a part of who we are In the last ten years. In the last ten years We lost George Harrison, John Paul and June Carter-Cash Hell, we even lost Superman Gonna miss you. Chris... By using personification in the author’s song he gets the emphasis he is looking making the reader understand that the incident that happened effected more than just one person. For instance he says Oklahoma sifting through the damage to make the reader realize that not just one person, but the whole of Oklahoma had to go through this devastation. The repetition of the word We is an emphasis of how the whole world was affected by the events of the last ten years. For example, he says we all cried when we watched those towers fall. It makes whoever is listening to the song feel like they were a part of that particular event in time. It makes the listener remember those disasters. He was trying to get a personal feel about it. The Significant Event Approach When Kenny was writing this song he was thinking about all the events that had happened in the last ten years and of the most famous people who had died. This inspired the song that became so popular today. He wanted people to remember the events that had become a part of their history or as he says in he’s song “a part of who we are”. Since he wanted people to remember these events instead of saying I in his song he said we. Also, at the end of every verse he thought it was important to remember some of the people we had lost along the way.