The Bug that Proves it All

            The "Great Naitons of Europe," symbolically ironic, portrays the shallowness and both grandeur of this unit of power. By colonizing every spectacle of America, Europeans acted like the 'savages themselves.' Having conquered all of the canaries in the Canary Island (that is what gave it its name), does not only invoke the indians as being animals, but as a destroyed race. They inferiorize these people, by describing them as unholy, filthy. Nevertheless, karma that can also be called irony, steps in and presumes these white men with "great fortunes." 

            "They got tb and typhoid and athletes foot, diphtheria and the flu
'scuse me great nations comin through."

           Now the "Great Nations of Europe" have diseases caused by lack of higiene. The irony....

               In addition, the most ironic detail in these lyrics is the implication of the European being noble at first. As soon as these "missionaries" arrived to the indina lands, they acted with harmless intentions. However, one event to another, the indinas "were all dead."

                Usually, the most unexpected happens during situations such as these. Situations that are new and exciting, situations that put every individual into a vulnerable position. Strangers, although appear to be good hearted, might be bluffing. Newman is able to demonstrate this idea quite well:

"Balboa found the Pacific, and on the trail one day,
he met some friendly Indians whom the Church told him were gay,
soooooooooooooo
he had them torn apart by dogs on religious grounds they say
the great nations of Europe were quite holy in their way."

  

                  How was the Church, considered a holy institution able to "tear the friendly indians apart by dogs on religious grounds?"

            The fact that such sins were done in the name of the Church, of G-d is irony at its finnest.

              However, the most shocking exploitation of irony in this barbaric story is chorus's patterns. In first the lines: "Hide your wives and daughter; hide the groceries too.
The great nations of Europe comin through," were used to imply how European men took advantage of the indian women. Furthermore, the last chorus changes, significantly. 
"Hide your wives and daughters; hide your sons as well
with the great nations of Europe you never can tell."

           The message these lines entail are degrading and overwhelming. For they imply that the European and the "Great Nations" didn't have limits. They're moral sense was undefined. This has led me to think, indians were accused as animals, for they weren't Catholic, therefore they didn't have a 'saved soul.' However, the Europeans were animalistic and inhumane. Might the song be speaking of the Europeans all along? I think so, for after every conclusion victorious proclamation is inverted, it becomes a negative. 

"Europeans have sprung up everyone as even I can see
but there on the horizon is the possibility
that some bug from out of Africa might come for you and me
destroying everything in its path from sea to shining sea
like the great nations of Europe in the 16th century. "

             Will a bug finally prove the dark irony in this song. A bug will establish Newman's point very clearly.