Wednesday 30 May 2012

Of Mice and Men Subject and Theme in Our World: Music

Of Mice and Men is about 2 men that are lonely and isolated from society. They are living in poverty and have no where to go except to go look for jobs. This is the subject for Of Mice and Men; loneliness and alienation. The theme of this story in my opinion is that even the most lonely and isolated people in society have the biggest dreams. In this post, I will post songs that talk about loneliness and isolation. I will also talk about what their lyrics mean and how they relate to the subject and theme of Of Mice and Men.

Let's start with the first song called All by Myself by Eric Carmen.

This song is very short and has lyrics that describe both the subject and theme. This song is about a person who used to have lots of friends when they were young. Now they are older and have nobody to talk to. They are alone. This person has no love and feels very insecure. Everybody is gone far away from this person. This person's dream is to not be lonely and be with all the people he/she was once with when they were young.

All by myself
Don't wanna be, all by myself anymore
All by myself
Don't wanna live, all by myself anymore


This is the main chorus of the song which states that this person is now lonely and they do not want to be lonely. This is their dream.

This second song is called Isolation by a band named Alter Bridge. 


The band in this song is talking about a person that is isolated from everyone else. The first verse of the song seems to define the word isolation.

When all is lost to you inside
When all the darkness takes the light
The ritual it has begun
And now you tear away from everyone
Disconnected so alone yeah
Severed ties from all you know

When the darkness takes over the light, you are now falling apart from everyone else. When you fall apart from everyone you are now disconnected. This is what isolation means. 

The second verse talks about how you are afraid to dream about the life you want. Without dreaming, you can't try achieve that dream because you have no dream. Because of that you are broken and have to face the reality that is in front of you. Here's the verse:

Justify you waste away
You dare to dream but still you're too afraid
And now you're broken and deceived
Lost to live this cruel reality
You're disconnected so alone
Severed ties from all you know

The rest of the song  just talks about how hopefully you will try to make things better to live a life you want to live. The person the band is talking about probably wishes that they aren't isolated and wish to have the life everyone has or wants.

This next song is called Lonely Boy by Andrew Gold


The lyrics in this song aren't too clear by what they mean however this is my interpretation. The song is about two parents that gave birth to a son. They treated him well and they sent him to school. His parents supposedly told their son that he would be an only child. In the summer of 1953 they gave birth to a baby girl. His parents told him that they needed to pay more attention to his sister than to him since she was just born. This made him sad. Eventually he left home and became a lonely guy. His sister grew up, gave birth to a son and did the same things her parents did to their son. The son's dream is that his parents wouldn't have lied to him and payed more attention to him than his sister. His dream is to find a better life away from his horrible parents.


 The next and final song I will talk about is a song called Lonely People by a band named America.


The song is short and simply talks about all the lonely people that think their life is done. The band says that don't think that your life is done until you have thought up of a way to fix it and go and try to fix it. They also talk about single people that think that they will never be able to experience love. The band says that you should go and at least try to attain love before thinking your life is over. The dream of these lonely people is to not be lonely and the single people wish that they would be with someone that loves them back as much as they love them. Here are the lyrics:

This is for all the lonely people
Thinking that life has passed them by
Don't give up
Until you drink from the silver cup
And ride that highway in the sky

This is for all the single people
Thinking that life has left them dry
Don't give up
Until you drink from the silver cup
You never know until you try

Well, I'm on my way
Yes, I'm back to stay
Well, I'm on my way back home

This is for all the lonely people
Thinking that life has passed them by
Don't give up
Until you drink from the silver cup
She'll never take you down or
Never give you up
You'll never know until you try

So as you can see, not only is the subject and theme of Of Mice and Men played in our world and literature, but it is also played in songs just like I have showed you here. These songs are great examples of examples of people that are lonely and isolated in our world.

Thanks for reading,

~ Ramez Fares

Sources: 








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