The Fray's hit song, 'How To Save a Life,' tells a story of a mentor, also a friend, who is trying to 'save a life' of a troubled youth. The story starts off with the teenager and this friend sitting down to have a talk about what is wrong in the teen?s life. The second line reads, 'he walks, you say sit down it's just a talk,' this showing anger and fear of what might be brought up in conversation, so he tries to run away from the problem. Although neither individual wants to have the talk, they both respect each other enough to be polite, 'He smiles politely back at you/ You stare politely right on through.' Then the narrator mentions a metaphorical 'window to your right/As he goes left and you stay right,' which is telling us, everything that is said to the teenager doesn't catch on in his mind. He believes there is nothing wrong, so he stays to the left instead of heading toward the window, or his escape, on the right. The first verse ends with, ?Between the lines of fear and blame/You begin to wonder why you came? which is telling us that the friend is having second thoughts trying to help the teen in the first place because the adolescent is being headstrong. The second verse tells us about the many attempts the mentor has made to rejuvenate the teens life, ?Lay down a list of what is wrong/The things you've told him all along.? The last two lines in the second verse are repeated ?and pray to God he hears you/and pray to God he hears you? which is emphasizes the angst of the mentor because of the numerous times he has tried to save the teen. In the last verse, pressure starts to build as ?he [the teen] begins to raise his voice/you [mentor] lower yours and grant him one last choice.? The mentor gives him an ultim... ... middle of paper ... ... teen, whose life is finally turning for the better.? (Christian Music Today) Slade?s writing style to this song is very interesting because he it is told from two different points of view. The first point of view is told from a narrator who is guiding the mentor progressively through the steps of the feared talk. The second view is from inside the mentor?s head, possibly at the point before asking the narrator for help in the situation. In this song The Fray takes great effort to convey the point of talking with the youth of today about making the correct decisions that will have a large affect upon one's life. Although the song in no way forces the narrators thoughts and ideas upon the youth they still firmly instill the knowledge of his choices impact on his future. Ideally this would be a guideline, an alarm of hope, a script on how to one day "save a life."
...ltimately makes the young girl feel that she will break underneath all the pressure she is placed upon by her peers. Inevitably it seems that Judith Ortiz Cofer used similes in order to connect both the act of maturing to a much more somber factor which have reinforced the tenor of the poem.
The Dave Matthews Band has been a musical power house for years. They have meshed together almost every type of music together to create their extremely unique sounds and attractiveness towards their music. Dave Matthews, lead singer and guitarist from South Africa has put together a band that no one will ever be able to create again. Dave picked four extremely talented and unique sounding men to join his band and together they have created some amazing music. The members of the band include Stefan Lessard on bass, Boyd Tinsley on violin, Leroi Moore on saxophone and one of the best drummers in the world, Carter Beauford. Together these men will one day leave behind a similar reputation as one of the all time greatest "jam" bands of time.
2. What is the effect of the exclamation mark used in the last line of the second stanza?
In the final stanza, the poet claims that young men whom are of the same mind will look to the criminal for guidance. These young minds will relate to the social-stance of the criminal, and maybe follow in the same footsteps, treating the criminal as their role model.
If analyzed carefully, the melancholy verses of the song are in sharp contrast to the overpowering chorus. Ignore the addictive chorus "Born in the U.S.A.” and what you really hear is a protest song that tells the depressing story and struggle of Vietnam Veterans returning home to a disillusioned life. To his most devoted ...
The speaker also manipulates time to bring out his or her message. Lines 3, 8, 11, 21, 34, and 36 all contain some order of either “spring summer autumn winter” (3), as in lines 11 and 34, or “sun moon stars rain” (8), as in lines 11, 21, and 36. As the order of these seasons changes, it indicates the passage of time. This manipulation of time draws attention away from these lines and towards the lines with deeper meaning hidden within. However, there is another form of time: the progression of life. The speaker comments on the growth of children in terms of their maturity levels and how as they get older, children tend to forget their childish whims and fancies and move on. He or she says that they “guessed (but only a few / and down they forgot as up they grew” (9-10). He or she then goes on to say that “no one loved [anyone] more by more” (12), hinting at a relationship in development, foreshadowing a possible marriage.
Lines 5-10 present that the majority of the world talking, but over nothing, and nothing worth being heard. As rats feet over broken glass, meaning we hear something but nothing worth paying attention to. As wind in dry grass, indicates there is some sound being made, but it is an unknown sound that can be easily ignored. As hollow men we waste our life away talking and talking, but not doing.
... get across to the youth before they have a mind of their own, they’d learn not to even notice the color of one’s skin, but to look only into their eyes, which is a doorway to what the mind thinks, the heart feels and the body experiences.
In a typical family, there are parents that expected to hear things when their teenager is rebelling against them: slamming the door, shouting at each other, and protests on what they could do or what they should not do. Their little baby is growing up, testing their wings of adulthood; they are not the small child that wanted their mommy to read a book to them or to kiss their hurts away and most probably, they are thinking that anything that their parents told them are certainly could not be right. The poem talks about a conflict between the author and her son when he was in his adolescence. In the first stanza, a misunderstanding about a math problem turns into a family argument that shows the classic rift between the generation of the parent and the teenager. Despite the misunderstandings between the parent and child, there is a loving bond between them. The imagery, contrasting tones, connotative diction, and symbolism in the poem reflect these two sides of the relationship.
In essence, this song carries various sociological concepts. It concentrates on the main idea about the social construction of reality and talking about how reality is changing. The song questions the actions and mentally of individuals violating the norms and values of society. The band takes into consideration various factors of why it is happening including the media and religion. As a result they talk about such influences taking control building and developing a sense of self. This is a great song about present day problems and how society changes with them.
The poem seems to start off and end with a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning starts off with the speaker giving himself up to God to be purified from the sins he carries. The middle is the process of having the speaker being purified and having him follow God. The end depicts the final
I think that these two opening lines of the third verse have a lot of
The third stanza is a second and different refrain. This refrain occurs every other stanza. It acts as a divider between the stanzas dealing with a specific character. In the fourth stanza, Father McKenzie is introduced to the reader. He is conveyed as a materialistic man whose life has no meaning. Line fourteen literally tells the reader that no one will hear his sermon. The Father has no point to his life if he reaches no one through his sermons. Father McKenzie is “darning his socks in the night when there’s nobody there,'; which implies he is ashamed. He tries to hide not only the fact that he cannot afford new socks, but he is also hiding his self just as Eleanor did.
Stanza three explains what life was like at the farm he lived on, as the previous stanzas have. Line twenty describes the landscape and how beautiful it is. It describes it as Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air,” (20). Lines twenty one through twenty three use more imagery to describe the landscape. They use words such as “lovely and watery” (21) to show how pleasant it was to gaze upon the land. The word “And” is also repeated in the beginning of each of these lines which creates suspense. They also show repetition by repeating words such as “green” and it brings up the starry night again. Line twenty four talks about owls and how they are starting to come out. The day is starting to end and there is still beauty in everything. Now night has begun and all the things that made the day happy and carefree are starting to disappear. Lines twenty five through twenty seven use imagery to show that the moon is appearing and the horses and everything else is disappearing into the night. This begins to show that the youth the speaker is experiencing is starting to
Ms. Johnson had overcome many challenging obstacles in her life, but had never dealt with the challenges of trying to teach troubled teens. The lyrics of this song are an important factor to the movie, since Ms. Johnson had to learn about her multi-cultured student’s backgrounds in order to better understand them.