The verses always initially start out with a negative, realistic fact that the average family in the West during the 1930s encountered.

“Dust Can’t Kill Me” by: Woody Guthrie

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The narrator combats the constant troubles in each verse with a note of optimism about surviving and not being killed.

The lyrics convey the artist’s life by describing the feeling of losing everything during the Dust Bowl and relying on faith to get hime through. By knowing the struggles of the Dust Bowl, the narrator can thoroughly, expertly describe the conditions of the time in a first hand account.

[Depressing, realistic, with optimism rare for those times]