Jesus, Take the Wheel-Carrie Underwood

Carrie Underwood was born March 10, 1983 in Muskogee, Oklahoma. As a childhood, Carrie played in talent shows and sung in her church choir. In 1996, Carrie was set to get a recording contract with Capitol Records, but when the management changed, she didn’t get the contract. At age thirteen, Carrie became a vegetarian, saying she wouldn’t want to eat one of her own animals, and didn’t want to eat other animals either. She graduated in 2001 from Checotah High School as salutatorian. After high school, she attended Northeastern State University. She graduated magna cum laude in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication and an emphasis in journalism. She was a member of the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority. She competed in numerous beauty pageants at the university, and was runner up of the Miss NSU pageant in 2004. In the summer of 2004, Underwood auditioned for American Idol in St. Louis, Missouri. She was one of five winners never voted in the bottom three. On May 25, 2005, Underwood was crowned the winner of the fourth season of American Idol. She has returned to Idol many times to perform on new seasons’ shows. On November 15, 2005, Carrie released her debut album, Some Hearts, and made the Billboard 200 chart, selling 315, 000 copies. Some Hearts made it to number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and was the biggest debut of any country artist since the SoundScan system was used in 1991. The album has been certified septuple Platinum by the RIAA and is the fastest selling debut country album in the history of the SoundScan use. The album’s second single, “Jesus, Take the Wheel” was released to radios on October 18, 2005. It was played so much that it made it to number thirty-nine on the Billboard Country chart in its first week, and was number one for six consecutive weeks. Carrie has since released two more albums, Carnival Ride on October 23, 2007, and Play On on November 3, 2009. She has embarked on multiple tours, and has received many awards for songs and music videos. Most recently, in May of 2010, Carrie was named one of the 100 Most Beautiful People in the World by People Magazine. Carrie has also made a few TV appearances since 2009. She began to date Canadian hockey player Mike Fisher after meeting him at one of her concerts in 2008. On December 20, 2009, the two became engaged.
The song “Jesus, Take the Wheel” has many different poetic devices that work together as a whole to make a beautiful song. For example, the line “She was driving last Friday on her way to Cincinnati on a snow white Christmas Eve. Goin' home to see her Mama and her Daddy with the baby in the backseat” show imagery. While listening to the song, a person can picture a woman driving home in the snow with a baby in the backseat of the car. Another example of a poetic device is symbolism. The title “Jesus, take the wheel” is a symbol for her losing her place in life and needing Jesus to help her. The “wheel” symbolizes her life and where she is in life. There is consonance in the line “she was so scared.” The song as a whole has social relevance, because a lot of people veer off the course they started on, and soon don’t know where they are going any more. They look for guidance from anyone as they try to go back to where they started from. Throughout the song, there is euphony. The way Carrie sings the song works together to create a song that people want to listen to, and can relate to easily. It is emotionally evocative, allowing people to put themselves in her shoes and think about a time where they needed help in life. Carrie has an expansive range, making the song even better. There is a simile in the line “she cried when she saw that baby in the backseat sleeping like a rock.”
The key device in this song is symbolism, though imagery is used throughout it as well. The symbolism of Jesus taking the wheel of the car is used to show how she needs his help in getting her life back. Her loss of control of the car is a symbol of her loss of control of her own life. She is turning to God for help and guidance, and the imagery allows the person listening to the song to picture someone’s life being troubled and being in need of help.