Logos: A Change is Gonna Come

Although Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” features very little logical proof for encouraging one to bear his/her challenges, for better times are to come, the lyrics follow a timeline of events within his life. This timeline of events, however, encompasses a person who has endured a lot of misery and yet promises to keep fighting, because “a change is gonna come”. The song opens with, “I was born by the river in a little tent/ And just like the river I’ve been running ever since”. This is a start of the timeline of events, as well as a visual context to the begging of his troubles. Similarly, the next few verses also describe instances of Cooke’s experiences of disparity. For instance, he writes, “I go to the movie/ And I go down town/ somebody keep telling me don’t hang around...” In the end, he summarizes, “There were times when I thought I couldn’t last for long/ But now I think I’m able to carry on.” Despite all the pain and the suffering, Cooke continues to carry on because he believes “a change is gonna come”.