Connections and Predictions in Woody Guthrie's Biography

Question 7 • CCPS GSE Language Arts Grade 8 (23.01300) YL IC

Which excerpt from This Land Was Made for You and Me most likely influenced Woody Guthrie to write songs "full of anger and hardship"?

Answer

He’d stick out his thumb and hitchhike, swing onto moving freight trains, and hunker down with other traveling men in flophouses, hobo jungles, and Hoovervilles across Depression America.

Woody said the best songs came to him when he was walking down a road. He always had fifteen or twenty songs running around in his mind, just waiting to be put together.

Woody milled around in the wings as she sang, the heat from the lights bringing out the musty smell of the theater. When Aunt Molly finished he ambled out, wearing a cowboy hat, boots, and blue jeans.

Nothing was holding Woody in New York, and in about a week he was in Washington, staying with Lomax and his wife.

Explanation

The excerpt about hitchhiking, riding freight trains, and staying in flophouses and Hoovervilles describes Woody experiencing the poverty and hardship of the Depression firsthand. Those experiences would most likely inspire songs filled with anger and hardship. The other excerpts describe his songwriting habits, a performance, or a move to Washington, but not the difficult conditions that would shape those songs.

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