Wednesday, March 25, 2015

You don't need to be a "Hero" to be a Poet

A song in more modern culture that I believe is poetic is "Hero" by Family of the Year which is on their album Loma Vista. This was used for the Oscar nominated movie Boyhood, which if you have seen the movie, this song fits.

I have listen to this song many times, though I have debated the theme of the song,  Believe that the song is about a young man facing a very large struggle of growing up. Particularly, struggle with the idea of what it is to be a man. As well as dealing with the ideas society can bring to boys about what a man can be.  

 Though out the song there are many lead ins to the idea of growing up. One use of repetition that is a use of poetic imagery is, "Just wanna fight with everyone else." Without every saying that this song is about growing up, this imagery makes my head jump to teens ruff housing. Also, the line, "Let me go" displays this whole struggle with what growing up brings, even through it is very simplistic. 

With growing comes this idea of being a man and what it entails which is hard to express. Yet, He does a good job of expressing these ideas without saying them. In the chorus the lines, "I don't wanna be your hero/ I don't wanna be a big man." Displays a contemplation over being a man or a boy, also with what it comes with. This song shows that the idea of being a man is often shown as a Hero, which is impossible.

Also, when he says "Your masquerade. I don't wanna be apart of your parade." Can be looked at as the "masquerade" or lie of growing up, and not wanting to be the stereotypical male image. Going along with the debate of conforming the line, "Secrets from our American dreams" shows want for something taught to be attainable but really is not.

Another struggle of growing up is having to deal with responsibility. During the verse, He talks about the want providing for his girl, which is a stereotypical "hero" move, but also he talks about the fact that he is still a kid. Though not much time is spend on this the debate between hero or boy is made.

For these reasons I believe "Hero" is a poem, yet through this I realized that anyone can be poetic. That almost anyone who writes can be a poet. 

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