Theme analysis song #3: "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus

 The Climb by Miley Cyrus In her song, The Climb, Miley Cyrus uses hyperboles, metaphors, and also personification in order to convey her message of overcoming things in life that may be hard and seem like they are impossible to get over. She often uses things like “every step I’m taking. Every move I make feels lost with no direction…” to exaggerate how whenever she does things she feels as if it’s not right. This is an example of a hyperbole, she uses the example of every step she takes and every move to show that even the smallest movements and most trivial things that she does even can make her feel lost and as if she has no concept of where she is going in life. An a example of a metaphor used in the song is “there’s always gonna be another mountain. I’m always gonna wanna make it move.” which the mountain is meant to represent her struggle and by making it move she is using figurative language because she is not literally moving a mountain it is just a form of expression to say that they are capable of something extraordinary. Another form of a metaphor is “there’s always gonna be an uphill battle sometimes I’m gonna have to lose” which is comparing her future struggles to a battle which means there are ups and downs and sometimes she will lose the battle but that is the point of life. No one goes through life easily. “ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side” the other side is symbolic of the next moment in life and what she wants to convey is that you should live in the moment and get through all the struggles. A form of personification is “the chances I’m taking sometimes might knock me down…” which personifies the chances she takes by saying they could knock her down in order to say that by taking chances she risks being knocked down and failing but she keeps moving on despite the sadness. This song relates to my theme of getting through rough times because the speaker just wants to get through life and live by staying strong, even through her struggles and setbacks.

Theme analysis song #2: "Breakaway" by Kelly Clarkson

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKCGBv65w_M

 The song Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson shows my theme of leaving the past behind and overcoming struggles of the past by using literary devices such as imagery, synesthesia, and metaphors in order to suggest her want to move on with her life and go further to places she has dreamt of going. “Grew up in a small town and when the rain would fall down I'd just stare out my window. Dreaming of what could be and if I’d end up happy, I would pray” is imagery which allows the reader to sympathize with the speaker and picture what she would do on rainy days when she had nothing else to do but let her thoughts wash over her mind. I feel as though the use of this imagery does a good job at foreshadowing the feelings the speaker has towards her hometown and that she is looking forward to the future. I believe that this allows for the reader, or listener, to relate to how when people are younger and still living with their parents they dream about the future and leaving to start a life of their own. An example of figurative language that the speaker uses is “when I tried to speak out felt like no one could hear me” what she means is that (I picture this speaker as a high school student) she would speak with adults and tell them of her life or her plans or even visions and she was not understood which is why she feels as if no one hears what she is saying. By foreshadowing that she is not happy, or at least feeling some discontent, the speaker leads us to her point that she wants to “spread [her] wings and I’ll learn how to fly I’ll do what it takes til’ I touch the sky”. She uses this as a metaphor, she is essentially comparing herself to a bird. She wants to learn how to do things herself and go on her way to her future to get out of her small town. The whole song is about how the speaker plans to overcome her loneliness of living in a small town and expand her life so that she can accomplish everything she has dreamt of. “Out of the darkness and into the sun” is an example of figurative language because it means that she is emerging from somewhere where she was not happy, which the darkness symbolizes, and she goes “into the sun” which means that she is following her dreams and leaving the past behind her. “Wanna feel the warm breeze sleep under a palm tree feel the rush of the ocean” this is an example of synesthesia because of the way it describes the feel of both the breeze and the ocean. The speaker uses this to help convey the message of the song because she wants her audience to see the appeal of how she pictures where she wants to be in her future. I’d like to make note that when she speaks of where she is at the beginning, which is her hometown, she isn’t happy with it and she constantly is dreaming of getting out which she describes it as dark and rainy. Yet she describes the place she dreams of as warm and sunny. I believe she did this to make the place she dreams of seem more desirable and idealistic for someone who wants to escape a small hometown. This ties into my theme because it shows how she wishes to leave her past behind her and break free from what she has always known.

Theme analysis song #1: "Shake it out" by Florence and the Machine

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCWnVznnWcs

        The band Florence and the Machine use literary elements such as paradox, metaphor, similes, and also figurative language in the song "Shake it out" in order to convey the common theme of overcoming hard times they have faced. A paradox that is repeated throughout the song is “It’s always darkest before the dawn” which is contradictory because darkness is usually referred to when thinking of the night while the dawn is more represented by light. This could also be figurative language because it is literally darkest before the dawn but also it means that everyone, no matter who they are, face hard times before they can overcome them and face the good times. An important simile that adds to the song as a whole is “regrets collect like old friends” which is comparing the collection of regrets that she has to the meeting up of old friends who have lost touch but every so often come back and linger on her mind. “And all of the ghouls come out to play” is a metaphor for the ghouls who are her regrets and bad thoughts that reveal themselves when she has moments of freethinking. Another example of a metaphor is “And every demon wants his pound of flesh” which means that the “demons” which are her thoughts fight to be the one to bother her at a certain moment in time. So all of her pent up thoughts are being brought up when she thinks about them, and it is hard for her to focus on one as they all are on her mind. “I can never leave the past behind” is figurative language because it is saying that she can not leave the past behind which is, if you look at it from a literal view, impossible, but it means that she can not leave what has happened to her in the past and she continues to go back to thinking about it. “Tonight I’m gonna bury that horse in the ground” is a metaphor for the way the speaker is going to finally let go of the bad time or thoughts that she has been holding onto for so long. “It’s hard to dance with a devil on your back so shake him off” which is a metaphor because she is saying that she can’t live her life the way she wants if she has not let go of things that are bringing her down. These poetic elements work towards my theme, of overcoming struggles and leaving the past behind, by showing that the speaker has gone through a harsh time which is usually symbolized by the word “dark” and she overcomes the dark by saying that she has buried it and she is shaking it out.

Comparison of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" Video and Song

In Pink Floyd’s song The Wall the video and song both share the similar idea of stifled creativity and the society trying to diminish individuality. In the song it repeats the idea of bricks. Maybe the song writer wanted to convey that the bricks are a metaphor for people in the society. By saying that they’re just bricks in the wall one can only assume that they mean the wall is the world , or society, and the bricks are people who are being molded how everyone else wants them to be. That being said, this idea of conforming to society and being just like everyone else is shown in the video through various things like masks, the many bricks, the train, and also the conveyor belt. The masks worn by the children shows that they are not their own individual people they’re all the same. The masks were expressionless and had no concept of what the individual underneath it looked like. This shows what the song wanted to convey because the children were all the same, wearing the same clothes and also masks that were all the same so basically they were just the same people who had the same thoughts. The train and the way the people were reaching out of it as they arrived could be the film maker’s way of showing that these people did not really want to conform to society and they all just wanted to be themselves to suggest that the rest of the video will have them being molded and forced into what society wants them to be like. I really think that the conveyor belt just adds to the meaning of the song. It creates a more visual and straightforward way to comprehend the song. By having the conveyor belt it shows how the song really does mean that society is shaping people to be the same. No one has any individual thoughts or feelings, and by showing a conveyor belt with the children on it, it’s as if they are mass produced like many of the modern day things that are all alike with no contrast to set them apart from the others. I think that maybe the songwriter wanted to say that the school systems are molding kids into what they think they should be like, not allowing them to show their creativity or individual thoughts. Then again if you don’t take it in such a literal sense the teacher could be society and the kids they’re talking about could be people in general. Either way both the video and the song convey that there is a strong influence that wants people to all be alike and have the same thought processes and no individuality.