Question

The changes of the Industrial Age, including those leading to the Agricultural Revolution, still affect people's lives. Choose a modern song or a television show that idealizes rural life or compares rural life to urban life. How does this song or television show describe city life and the countryside? Cite evidence from the performance to support your answer.

Answer 1

Answer:

The song "Country Life" by the Watersons describes an idealized life in the countryside. The words "hurrah for the life of a country boy" reveal the singer's preference for country life. The song describes rural activities at different times of the year. The lyrics suggest that the tasks are fun and make the participants happy. Phrases such as "sport and play" and "rambling in the new mowed hay" support this idea.

Explanation:

Answer 2

Answer:

The Handsmaid Tale

Explanation:

The Handmaid Tale tells the story of Gilead, a dystopian country ruled by a religious authoritarian government in parts of what used to be United States territory.  

Besides many other topics, the show presents Gilead as a rural, traditional oriented society that is transitioning into fully organic agriculture. This transition takes place in response to a global crisis of pollution that has also affected human fertility rates (the main topic of the show).  

Gilead is shown as a slow-paced agricultural society which proudly presents itself as the first green nation. The show makes a point of how Gilead has drastically cut down carbon emissions and pollution and how the leaders of Gilead use this as an argument to justify their authoritarian measures.

In contrast, the show presents life before Gilead and life in Canada as more urban life. In a sense, Gilead is at the same time a Utopia and a dystopia. With all the idealized elements of rural life artificially kept by an iron-fisted religious authoritarian government.