Theme analysis song #6: "Carry On" by FUN

In the song Carry On by FUN there are many different examples of oxymorons, similes, metaphors and figurative language to express the fact that bad situations can be escaped and you can pick yourself up from them and “Carry on”. The allegory used within the song in the very first verse is “Well I woke up to the sound of silence…” which is obviously an oxymoron because the use of the word “sound” to describe the silence is kind of contradictory since silence has no sound. The example is used to describe how the speaker feels about the tension in the situation that he is in, usually the silence that occurs can be awkward and mysterious making someone feel lonely. Perhaps it is described as a song because the speaker is in fact alone and the silence is the constant sound (or lack of sound) that he experiences on a daily basis. The following line is “and cries were cutting like knives in a fist fight”. The cries are compared to knives in a fist fight. Perhaps the speaker is going through a breakup and the cries of his now ex cut through the silence much like a knife would cut someone in a fist fight. One of the lines that furthers the meaning of the song in order to convey it’s message is an example of figurative language. “I’ve closed enough windows to know you can never look back”, perhaps this could also be an example of an allegory. The meaning of this line is that the speaker has been through enough hard situations to know that looking back to the past could create problems and drag you back down to feeling the same way you do when you are in that specific situation. Another form of a simile used in the song is “and you’re sinking like a stone, carry on” the subject’s emotions are being compared to the sinking of a stone and how they can revert back to the troubled times when they feel alone. Yet the speaker still assures his audience that you can still carry on. Although all of the literary elements that I have listed thus far are describing the pain and sadness that life can bring one of them that reassures the point that you need to carry on through the bad times is a metaphor “may your past be the sound of your feet upon the ground, carry on” the metaphor means that when you look back at your past you shouldn’t look back at the bad things that have happened to you but you should look at when you overcame them and picked yourself up from those points in your life. Again the reassurance that you can make it through is the repetition of the phrase “carry on” at the end of the sentence. The song begins with a scene revealing a time in someone’s life where they would feel alone and be hurting but throughout the song the phrase “carry on” insures that although things seem bad you can easily get over them eventually and carry on with your life.