Analysis of Bruce Springsteen’s song “Nebraska” Bruce Springsteen is an American icon and represents America through his work as a musician. Many of Springsteen’s songs target controversial and sensitive topics in American history. “Nebraska” is one of those songs. In the song, Springsteen reenacts the murderous events that occurred in Nebraska in 1958. A 19-year-old man named Charles Starkweather killed eleven people in the state of Nebraska. Supposedly, the motive behind the murders was that Starkweather listened to rock music and watched too many rebellious movies. Springsteen used Starkweather’s perspective of reality as the conflict behind the song. Springsteen also used Flannery O’Connor’s works as an influence when writing the lyrics. The use of O’Connor’s style is clearly seen throughout the song. Springsteen portrays Starkweather as a character who is troubled by emotions and …show more content…
resorts to murdering as a way to escape reality. Therefore, the conflict of the song deals with Starkweather’s emotional struggle and his battle with reality. The lyrics of “Nebraska” tell us Starkweather’s motives for committing the murders. The line, “At least for a little while, sir, me and her we had us some fun” (line 6), reveals to us the state of mind Starkweather was in while on his murder spree. The line also gives insight into why he commited the murders. In 1950’s Nebraska there was not much to do as a young person. Starkweather sounds as if he was driven mad by boredom. His motivation for the murders would have had to do with his constant struggle with nothingness. People that go on these violent sprees are usually persons that have lacked something in their upbringing. These people usually lack role models and good people in their life as well as friends. In Starkweather’s case, I believe he was lacking in several of these areas. In addition to Starkweather’s upbringing, is his aforementioned obsession with rock music and rebellious movies. The judge that tried Starkweather believed all his problems could be traced back to this. The view presented here is similar to the perspective we hold in our society today about rap music and violent video games. Another possible motive presented is stated in the last line of the song. The line, “Well sir I guess there's just a meanness in this world” (line 13), draws from Flannery O’Connor’s story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” In O’Connor’s story there is a serial killer named the “Misfit” who states an eerily similar line at the end of the story. The “Misfit” explains that there is no reason for living good on Earth because it is the only time you have. The “Misfit” finds pleasure in “meanness.” I believe Springsteen uses the motive for the “Misfit” as way to explain Starkweather’s sudden turn into darkness. There are several aspects of “Nebraska” that make it a particularly effective.
One of the elements implemented by Springsteen is the way he tells the story of the murders through Starkweather’s perspective. By using Starkweather as the speaker, Springsteen is forced to assume the role as a dark and highly troubled human being. He sings about the events of the grisly murders and his impending execution in an unemotional and passionless tone. This makes the song even more chilling, as his tone is supposed to represent the lack of emotion felt by Starkweather. Springsteen also makes usage of metaphors throughout the song. He mentions a “great void” which could represent multiple things. The void could be Hell, or the void could be the emptiness that Starkweather finds in this life. I believe that it is meant to represent the nothingness in this life that some people feel exists when they reach adulthood. For Starkweather, all hopes and dreams of his childhood have been extinguished. There is nothing left for him to live for, creating a bitter rage against reality and all who live in
it. Springsteen originally wrote “Nebraska” as a poem. Upon further analysis this can easily be seen. All the lyrics are written and sung in couplets, except for the conclusion (more on this later). The song’s form is similar to that of an older style lyric poem. Lyric poems speak to us about legends and accounts of people’s lives. These poems illustrate these stories through song. Unlike a traditional lyric poem, this song is uniquely American as it adds in elements of blues and folk. The acoustic guitar is replacing the lyre and the harmonica adds an American element to the song. The alternating rhyme that occurs throughout the song is also endemic of Starkweather’s personality. The rhyme is used in the darkest places of the lyrics, creating a grim and sinister picture of Starkweather’s sense of humor. By using the outlaw as the narrator the audience is able to see how such a wounded soul, such as Starkweather’s, is so desperately clinging to a feeling. This feeling that Starkweather is holding on to is the “fun” or a warped sense of freedom that he enjoyed while on his wrathful journey through the west. These murderous spree was an escape from a harsh reality. The conclusion hints as to his view on this world and what he thinks lies beyond. “They declared me unfit to live said into that great void my soul'd be hurled\ They wanted to know why I did what I did\ Well sir I guess there's just a meanness in this world.” (lines 11,12,13). The resolution for Starkweather is his death sentence. By dying, he is being set free from a reality that has driven him over the edge. Springsteen’s “Nebraska” is a telling account of what happens when the “American dream” becomes an impossible reality. A man who becomes violent after he realizes that the world is not the place of his childhood. It is an especially relevant story today. In our society we are constantly haunted by the threats of shootings committed by psychotic people. Do these modern day physcopaths share in the same demented reality as Charles Starkweather?
The song has heavily used imagery when stating “And the Legal pads were yellow, hour’s long, pay packet lean. And the telex writers clattered where the gunships once had been.” This is used to explain his stress of coming back to civilization after war and all the things that once traumatized you are now take place in a different way. The song also uses Social Criticism“And she was like so many more from that time on. Their lives were all so empty, till they found their chosen one.” This is used to say that a female’s life is incomplete until they settle down and marry. Cold chisel has added this in to reconnect with their message to show that women are incomplete without their male counterparts and it makes it hard for both people in the relationship after war because of a miscommunication between love and
In the book “Death's Acre”, By Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson they tell readers how they got to where they are today in their careers and how Dr. Bill Bass became famous for the well known “Body Farm” at the University of Tennessee. In “Deaths Acre” Bass invites people across the world who are reading to go behind the gates of the body farm where he revolutionized forensic anthropology. Bass takes us on a journey on how he went from not knowing if this is what he wanted to do for a living to being in a career that he would never trade. He tells us about the Lindbergh kidnapping and murder, explored the headless corpse of a person whose identity shocked many people included the police, divulges how the telltale traces and case
In “Nightmare” from Out of the Dust, Billie Joe wakes up from a nightmare, trembling in fear from a nightmare about the dust storms and her inability to play the piano. The poem is filled with symbolism, used to build up anxiety and uncertainty, and for Hesse to elaborate on her thoughts. “Through a howling dust storm, my lowered face was scrubbed raw by dirt and wind” dramatically demonstrates a mood of panic and distress. As the suspense builds, Hesse uses imagery to exhibit uneasiness and describe the situation even further, “dust crept inside my ears, up my nose, down my throat.” Many instances of figures of speech are used, such as similes, personification, and metaphors. After trudging through the dust, not caring about anything but
He feels like he is the only person who questions life and knows that it was not meant to be this way. Also, this quote sets a dark setting which then gives the reader an ominous feeling that is present throughout the novel. This also is related to the dark and dismal lives that everyone lives during this time. Finally, the main character describes his surroundings as a prison, or that it gives a prison-like feel. This also is related to how he feels different and trapped in this way of life.
The fact that Tony Hoagland was once a young man himself, and so this need for explanation is somewhat personal. Hoagland is giving reasoning for an experience he’s been through, which is probably why the poem clearly demonstrates a familiarity with the topic. Personification is an extravagant part of the poem, and used frequently. The first major and significant example of personification is in the second stanza “Making the metal ring like sledgehammers on iron/like dungeon prisoners rattling their chains.” (Hoagland). These two lines created an apparent image in my mind of what the author described was going on inside a young man’s body. I thought these lines could have been a comparison to the emotions one may be going through, a way for the author to explain how he could have felt, and had gave me the feeling he was crying out for someone to understand a certain frustration.
The Great Depression, which occurred during the 1920s and 1930s, was a time period of extreme economic crisis affecting all American citizens in some sort of way. During the Great Depression, Americans questioned their future, the government’s role in containing the economic turmoil, and the president at the time Herbert Hoover. Woody Guthrie’s song “This Land Was Made for You and Me” expresses some of the feelings many Americans experienced during this time period.
In the beginning, before any lyrics are sung, the music starts off slow and very inviting. The purpose of this to relieve yourself and just be able to sit back and take in everything he is about to say, and take something away from this song to help the listener for the days to come.The first message the speaker tries to convey comes from the first two lines, “You know there’s a light
The imagery in this passage helps turn the tone of the poem from victimization to anger. In addition to fire images, the overall language is completely stripped down to bare ugliness. In previous lines, the sordidness has been intermixed with cheerful euphemisms: the agonizing work is an "exquisite dance" (24); the trembling hands are "white gulls" (22); the cough is "gay" (25). But in these later lines, all aesthetically pleasing terms vanish, leaving "sweet and …blood" (85), "naked… [and]…bony children" (89), and a "skeleton body" (95).
The author speaks metaphorically because the people were condemned to death for instance, he said the world was upside down because it is not right to kill people just because of their religion. The best example to illustrate this idea is when Kimel states: “where the departed are blessed with an instant death.” Referring to the world in disorder, is the place that the author is discussing in this line. At the end of the stanza Kimel states that he has to remember, and never let you forget. Which means that he wanted to share his heartbreaking history, to make people understand that the author lived a nightmare during the year of
Regardless that the film appears to be designed for a specific age-related target audience, there are several characters throughout the entire film that viewers can relate to. Therefore that in return keeps the viewer exceedingly intrigued, interested, and ultimately, entertained. Consequently, as a viewer the most prolific symbolism in the entire film being the metaphoric infinite abyss. As a viewer, the infinite abyss represents life in general, the meaning of life. Life can be a deep dark bottomless pit. One can either succumb to it, as it swallows you up and takes you down, or one can prefer to stand at the top and scream down at it in defiance, and create your own paths in life, and fill that abyss with meaning, purpose, friendships, family, happiness and love. Therefore, as soon as you alter the manner you view the world, you transform everything that happens to you within it. Life is just a state of
The song depicts the energy and the adrenaline the main character gets from racing, but it also shows how it affects his girlfriend. This song depicts a choice the man has to make. Live the life a racecar driver or set aside his dream and give his girlfriend the ability to have the American Dream. The racecar life was not ideal to the girlfriend and Springsteen sings about her sadness and desperation of living the life of a racecar divers girlfriend. The girl craves to live a normal life, or the American Dream, but her boyfriend ultimately has to decide if he wants to sacrifice his dream to give his girlfriend hers. Springsteen sings, “But all of her pretty dreams are torn,” clearly show how concerned and broken this girl is because she craves a different lifestyle (“Racing Streets”). The main character in this song must sacrifice something in order to keep his girlfriend happy, or the girlfriend has to sacrifice a normal life to assure happiness of her boyfriend. Overall, someone must sacrifice his or her
From the first stanza of this song, you get put into a scene. You know almost immediately that it is about someone, and it is the middle of December, but without stating the obvious, it paints a more illustrated picture for you. The first line states, “A winters day, in a deep and dark December” and I could almost immediately feel a cool breeze around me. When I normally think of a winter’s day, I think of people playing in the snow, and having a good time. This may be because I grew up in Southern California where there has been a lack of snow, but in my head, that is what I imagine. Having them state, in a deep and dark December, turns my attitudes to the more pessimistic way of looking at things. The image of children playing in the snow in my head has now turned to cold and dark emptiness. Reinstating my idea of emptiness, the next line follows with the simply statement, “I am alone”. Personally, I hate being alone. So to have the opening words place us in a deep and dark setting, and then state that you are alone, automatically puts me in a negative mindset.
The song accomplishes such a thing by taking the approach of a man who knows he is dying, and who takes a nice approach to it. Before the man dies and gets to experience the beauty of heaven, he explains to his loved ones that he doesn't want them to cry for him when he is gone but rather be happy for him. Images of different seasons of the year to explain the process of growing older. Images that depict the fading of light in a persons soul transforming into darkness. Images that the reader can perceive as vivid actions.
In the poem “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” Gray is symbolizing death using the method of dubbal entendre. In the opening stanza Gray states, “The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, / The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea, / The plowman homeward plods his weary way, / And leaves the world to darkness and to me” (1-4). The speaker is literally observing his surroundings as the day comes to an end, noticing the cows slowly moving to the other side of the mountaintop and a tired plowman making his way home leaving him to contemplate in the darkness. However, the underlying connotation in the first stanza is death which Gray symbolizes with the use of the word “knell”. Knelling is the ringing of a bell at a funeral; therefore, the reader can infer in the first line when Gray states, “The curfew tolls the knell of parting day” (1) is about it bein...