Guthrie believes that America is viewed as a good place, but he questions whether this is entirely true. In the first 3 stanzas, he sings of a postive view of America. He uses lyrics such as "ribbon of highway", "endless skyway", "golden valley", "the sun came shining", etc. These lyrics have a positive connotion. Contrastingly, he takes a different stance in the second half of the song. He uses lyrics such as, "Is this land mad for you and me?" and other phrases with negative connotations such as, "hungry", "shadow" and so on to show that the positive view that many have of America isn't entirely true.
