Hanna Mathis Professor Schnell English Composition 1302 01 December 2015 Literary Elements in “Oblivion” When hearing” Oblivion” for the first time the audience’s first interpretation may be vastly different than what the upbeat and playful rhythm may lead the listener to believe. “Oblivion”, a song written and performed by Claire Boucher a.k.a. “Grimes”, is a song with electronic beats, synth-pop tones, and almost inaudible, child-like vocals. Yet, when reading the lyrics the audience can uncover the darker meaning behind the “playful” song. The lyrics suggest a state of cluelessness or unawareness of one’s surroundings, as well as revealing Boucher’s experience with a sexual assault and the effects of the assault. Through the use of imagery, repetition, and the overall tone of the song the audience can view a traumatic event through the lyrics in “Oblivion”. The most prominent element in “Oblivion” is the use of dark and fearful imagery. Boucher sings,” Another walk about, after dark/ It’s my point of view/ ‘Cause someone could break your neck/ Coming up behind you/ Always coming and you’d never have a clue”, these words add a massive amount of darkness to the song almost immediately. These lyrics create a fearful image, Boucher not knowing what, or rather who, could be lurking around the corner without her knowledge of their presence. The person following Boucher could be a possible stalker or the person that sexually assaulted her, leaving her fearful to venture in
The song “Hurt” written by Trent Reznor and originally performed by his band Nine Inch Nails is a melancholy, haunting song. Nine Inch Nails’ version was recorded in 1994 and rerecorded and released by Johnny Cash in 2002. Each of the performers has a style, which some people would argue is at opposite ends of the spectrum of popular music; one is what is referred to as “Industrial Rock”, the other is country. Indeed, the musical genres are diverse; however, the song “Hurt” transcends the boundaries between old and new, hard and soft, and especially the differences and similarities between these men.
Music has always been regarded as an art of high importance. The word itself originates from the Greek word mousike meaning “of the muses”, the group of nine Greek Goddesses who regulate the arts and sciences. It has often been used as a way to heal mental and emotional pain; “music speaks directly to the body through intuitive channels that are accessed at entirely different levels of consciousness from those associated with cognition” (The Music Effect.24). In Jan Johnson’s Soul Wound, Johnson discusses the historical trauma of Native Americans and the rage that is associated with it. This rage, as she later states, “is generally turned inward and expressed through depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide, and manifested externally within families and communities through domestic and other forms of violence” (Johnson.226-227). In Wabanaki Blues by Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel we see this rage internalized and portrayed in the depression of both Mona and her mother and depicted in their family dynamic through the neglect of Mona’s mother towards Mona. Mona, as well as other characters in the book, utilize music as a form of therapy to heal the soul. The characters in Wabanaki Blues utilize music to heal in ways that parallels Bob Marley’s Redemption Song and the Rastafarian religion.
In the memoir A Long Way Gone, author Ishmael Beah describes his survival journey as a lost child in his country, because of the civil war in Sierra Leone, then becoming a child soldier facing war daily, afterward the process that Beah went through during rehabilitation and finally in fear escaping the civil war. Ishmael Beah emotional journey has three stages of development in which Beah utilized music. In the first stage, Beah uses music as a survival mechanism to keep sane and safe. In the second stage, begins when he loses his brother and friends, Beah reaches the lowest point with the loss of his entire family again, some friends, music, and being forced to join the war. In the final stage, is the process of rehabilitation where Beah connects with music once again. Ishmael Beah exposure to music at a young age stayed with him throughout his life. (Beah, 2007, p. 5-218)
From the creation of harmonies to singing to instruments, music has been an abstract form of human expression. Although an auditory collection of pitches and volumes, musicians can manipulate the same notes and bring them alive for their audiences. The true emotion and energy that’s felt in music really comes from the player as feelings are transferred to and through the listener. This interaction between performer and the house is catharsis, the complete release of strong repressed emotions. Thanks to the musician, music has the ability to grasp people and cause them to sense emotions and feelings without lyrics or images even being necessary. Although it’s believed we can only hear with our ears, something about music makes it emotionally if not physically tangible. In James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues,” a narrator certainly unaware of the impact of music invites himself to experience jazz for the first time. Baldwin uses the final scene of his story to argue that music has an effect on those who are able to experience it. Baldwin does this in one single moment by letting the fixed, practical minded, “well-intentioned” narrator experience catharsis from jazz as his growing, free-spirited brother communicates with him through jazz.
Soundtracks to films often strive to represent the themes and feeling of the film, and direct the audience towards particular emotions. A good soundtrack not only allows for the listener to understand the film better, but it should also bring to mind particular scenes, images, or characters. Soundtracks for books can do the same. In my creation of a soundtrack for Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, I strove to encompass Lauren’s journey throughout the novel and the various emotions that she experiences. Since Lauren is reflecting on her experiences, her journey becomes central to how the audience feels and experiences the emotional aspects of the book. The songs not only represent Lauren, but also the entire feel and theme of the text. The songs follow along with Lauren, with her despair, death, and the need for survival. As I scoured through song after song, I tried to connect each song choice with a particular moment in Lauren’s story and the hopelessness of a dystopian future Butler warns her audience about.
Power and control plays a big role in the lives many. When power is used as a form of control, it leads to depression and misery in the relationship. This is proven through the themes and symbolism used in the stories Lesson before Dying, The fun they had, The strangers that came to town, and Dolls house through the median of three major unsuccessful relationship: racial tension between the African Americans and the caucasians in the novel Lesson before Dying, Doll’s House demonstrates a controlling relationship can be detrimental for both individuals and The Stranger That Came To Town along with The Fun They Had show that when an individual is suppressed by majority they become despondent.
A multitude of people nowadays choose their favorite songs because of how they sound and the attractiveness of the singer. However, some people select their favorite songs because of its appeal by relating to their personalities and feelings. Just as songs can relate to people, they can express countless similarities with stories as well. When it comes to the story, The Diary of Anne Frank, there are a variety of characters and events that songs can relate to. The songs “Chocolate Rain”, “The Last Goodbye”, and “Lost Cities”, verbalize numerous commonalities with The Diary of Anne Frank.
Music is a universal way in which people connect, and it does this through its use of literary devices to make the songs meaningful while still appealing. The song, “Wait and See,” uses literary devices like similes and metaphors to contribute to the theme of society’s mistakes and their impacts on the
Perhaps one of the strongest demonstrations of the power of music in “Sonny’s Blues” is the street revival. Everyone has seen these types of revivals before. Every song has been heard by the crowd, but when the music starts everyone stops, watches, and listens. “As the singing filled the air the watching, listening faces underwent a change, the eyes focusing on something within; the music seemed to soothe a poison out of them; and time seemed, nearly, to fall away from the sullen, belligerent, battered faces” (57). The music from the street revival helps lifts the hopelessness from the crowd and provides a sense of relief. Music is able to bring people from all walks of life together. It gives them a sense of calm and ease, an assurance that something is there to help. Music listens.
Although the subject of nightmare is only in two lines of the whole poem, this minor contribution is highly effective for it allows the audience access to the traumatising aftermath of the horrors of war.
James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” conveys how music serves as a form of communication, both at a small and large scale. Charting the development of the communication between Sonny and his brother allows us to view how the unnamed brother fails to meet Sonny at his emotional level by not understanding his pain. I argue that the text introduces Sonny as someone who “has never been talkative” to set the foundation for his growth from being voiceless to speaking both vibrantly and effortlessly through music (Baldwin 113). Over the course of the text, the unnamed brother begins to listen to Sonny to discover the connection between music and emotion. Therefore, the text argues that music is a crucial mechanism to communicate with one another—more specifically
Unlike the poetry of Emily Dickinson, the song “Mad World” by Gary Jules explores the conformity of today’s society, which is shown to inevitably darken one’s outlook on life. Jules’ apathy reveals how this form of belonging is quite destructive; as he communicates that individuality becomes redundant in a world of anonymity. Jules’ exclamation of “I want to hide my head and drown my sorrows” exhibits the desperate desire to escape from the mundane and depressive atmosphere of a uniform society.
Many songs have deep and emotional messages throughout them, but few can match the aptitude portrayed in “The Dead Heart” This is depicted with the help of the text structure. “The Dead Heart” was made up of 8 stanzas. The rhyme pattern is ABCC, and changes throughout different stanzas this is to show the displeasure of the Indigenous people, when white men came and took their land. Indigenous people felt many things during this time period, happy and satisfied weren’t what they felt, instead they felt: hopeless, depressed, unfortunate and miserable. There are constant slant rhymes in the song, an example includes: Know your custom don't speak your tongue, white man came took everyone” The pure reason why “Midnight Oil” made these two sentences slant rhyme opposed to normal rhyme is to show the discomfort and distress when the British took their land, their most prized possession and their home. The structure used throughout “The Dead Heart” is phenomenal and truly captivates the true emotion the artist’s intended. Not only is the structure used extraordinary, but the poetic devices used truly entice the audience and elicit an emotional response.
When a movie only contains a plot some stock soundtracks emphasizing certain moments in a movie, then it’s only just as good as the other movies within the same genre because the soundtracks prove there was very little the makers could do to emphasize how the movie was different and much more exciting since it did not follow a cliché from similar movies. The movie Oblivion does just this: It provides a unique plot that differs from most other sci-fi movies and is accompanied occasionally by segments of the main soundtrack, also named “Oblivion.” The soundtrack could be the base of an entire short film if the creators wanted to do just only that. It is entirely possible because of the nature of the song and the fact that it goes through the
Unusual punctuation, irony, and thoughtful syntax illustrate the conflict between what the narrator craves versus her reality. First, the narrator states that she “listened to her sentiment: / Baby, where did our love go?- a lament / I greedily took in” (10 - 12). Placing the word “sentiment” (10) instead of lyrics enhances the idea that she is listening to more than just the words, sentiment denotes to one’s attitude or view of an event. The narrator is not simply enjoying a tune, she is intently focused on the attitude this musician is intending to establish.