Analysis of Jack Johnson's Cookie Jar

Analysis of Jack Johnson's Cookie Jar Jack Johnson’s song, “Cookie Jar” is a powerful influence to

challenge the beliefs and values of western society. The song is all

about blaming what you have done on someone else, hence the title

Cookie Jar. The title is “Cookie Jar” because of the old saying “Who

stole the cookie from the cookie jar, Who me, Yes you, No not me” this

means that we are always trying to find someone else to blame, rather

than ourselves, we try to find a scapegoat to get us out of the mess

that we have created. “Cookie Jar” challenges the beliefs and values

of western society because, in the song a young boy kills another

young child with a gun and he said that you cant blame him. His dad ,

the media man, the singer of the song and the maker of the movie, who

are all characters who’s jobs are their titles, movie maker, etc. all

say that they’re not to blame as well.

The narrative voice in “Cookie Jar” should be embarrassed to turn on

the TV, because it truly is embarrassing to see what people in a

western society now watch as entertainment and for gossip. In western

culture the media plays a big role in the values and attitudes of the

community, it explains to people what is currently happening and

people will always be gullible and believe everything they are told on

the TV, but Jack Johnson challenges this, by a part in his last stanza

in “Cookie Jar”, “It was magic at first, But it let everyone down, And

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we are shown on TV, the narrative voice we hear is saying that “We all

have the blood on our hands” what this means is people are dying for

others entertainment. This is a very important stanza for proving that

Jack Johnson wants the listeners to think about themselves. He said

that it is everyone’s fault for things, we cant keep blaming other

people for our misdeeds. We wanted the entertainment and we get it

then we cant blame it for things that happen, but we can blame

ourselves for wanting this sort of entertainment that can influence

people and make them think that certain things are right and allowed

to be done, when in fact they are very wrong. So we should be putting

the blame on ourselves not a scapegoat, which challenges the beliefs

of western society because everyone is right in western society.