Blown Away

“Blown Away” by Carrie Underwood

Dry lightning cracks across the skies

Those storm clouds gather in her eyes
Her daddy was a mean old mister
Mama was an angel in the ground
The weather man called for a twister
She prayed blow it down

There's not enough rain in Oklahoma
To wash the sins out of that house
There's not enough wind in Oklahoma
To rip the nails out of the past

 

Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away,
Every brick, every board, every slamming door blown away
'Til there's nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday
Every tear-soaked whiskey memory blown away,
Blown away

She heard those sirens screaming out
Her daddy laid there passed out on the couch
She locked herself in the cellar
Listened to the screaming of the wind
Some people call it taking shelter
She called it sweet revenge

Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away,
Every brick, every board, every slamming door blown away
'Til there's nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday
Every tear-soaked whiskey memory blown away,
Blown away

There's not enough rain in Oklahoma
To wash the sins out of that house
There's not enough wind in Oklahoma
To rip the nails out of the past

Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away (blown away)
Every brick, every board, every slamming door blown away (blown away)
'Til there's nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday (blown away)
Every tear-soaked whiskey memory blown away,

Blown away, blown away, blown away, blown away, blown away

Analysis:

I chose this song because of the tale it tells and because I like quite a few of Carrie Underwood’s songs. This song is sung in third person limited. It is told from the view of a young girl who is dad was an alcoholic. It speaks to me because of what the girl did or did not do to her father: she left him on the couch and locked herself in the storm cellar. Abuse and alcoholism in the homes of young kids is not a good thing. These kids are forced to witness horrible things that can happen to the best of us. I grew up around domestic violence and people who suffered from alcoholism, even though it is not the same circumstances it is nice to hear a song that relates to my situation. Sometimes people who continually make bad decisions drive the ones around them to want to be rid of them. Carrie Underwood uses figurative language to reinforce the theme: that actions are forgiven not forgotten.



The song starts off, “Her daddy was a mean old mister/Mama was an angel in the ground/The weather man called for a twister/She prayed blow it down”, this immediately lets us know things at this girl’s home are not okay. She states “There’s not enough rain in Oklahoma/To wash the sins out of that house/There’s not enough wind in Oklahoma/To rip the nails out of the past” which is personifies rain and wind. The fact that there is not enough rain suggest that what she is going through is not just physical its mental and emotional as well. Also, the fact that there is not enough wind to rip the nails out suggest that what she went through is something so bad she cannot erase. “Every tear soaked whiskey memory blown away/Blown away”, reinforces the fact she is not happy at home: her father had a drinking problem and laid passed out on the couch during the twister. She wants them to be gone. “Blown away” is repeated many times throughout the song and is also the name of the song to me I thing it symbolizes her freedom. Her father being blown away meant that she didn’t have to do anything and his alcoholism only played part in this happening. The ironic part is that if he wasn’t an alcoholic maybe the girl in the story would have woke him or better yet he would have awoke to the alarms instead of being in an alcohol induced sleep. Her use of “blown away”, like that of wind which is yet another part of nature, foreshadows the death of her father in the twister.

Source:
video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJgoHgpsb9I
lyrics:
https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tjtcncb7x6lnuddv44m6urray2i?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics
Released: 2012