Rain on the scarecrow

The main point of the song is showing how farming is dead. The conflict is whether to sell the farm or not. Mellencamp uses the scarecrows to symbolize farming and he uses simple symbols and details to explain the falling of farming and his following depression. Mellencamp favors land owners who refuse to sell their land. He presents people without land and farming sympathetically because they do not have their own food or pride. He obviously wants to save farming and believes the, "land fed the nation and made him proud."