Senior Literary – Page 26 – Literary Arts Blogspace

Annelies’s Song

Today, I will be doing a review on the song “The People in the Attic” by Ice Nine Kills. I might be a bit partial to this song because when I was younger, I looked up to Anne Frank. She was my role model, and I used to aspire to have the same impact on the world that she did. You know, minus the Holocaust and dying in a concentration camp. I hope that never happens. As a small preface, the song is based off of Anne Frank’s diary and what could have been her experience when she was in the attic. For anyone who may be unfamiliar with Anne Frank, she was a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl who was forced to go into hiding with her family to avoid being captured by the Nazis during World War II. The Frank family had gone into hiding in 1942, and after two years of living in the annex, police officers stormed the small shop they were hiding in and arrested a total of ten people (two of them were helpers) on August 4, 1944. Anne was sent to the notorious concentration camp Auschwitz originally, then to Bergen-Belsen where she passed away of typhus at the age of fifteen. She is known for the diary she kept during her time in hiding.

The song focuses mostly on the literary aspect of Anne Frank’s experience, and the effort that the band went through to create the song is incredible to me. Some lines of the song are direct quotes of Frank’s diary, showing that there was at least some method of thought for the song. For example, they pull the quote “It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality” from her diary. I don’t know if it was intentional, but that quote (or line, however you’d like to take it) was written less than a month before Anne Frank and her family were arrested from the attic – close to the end of her life, basically. Yet the band chose to use that as the opening line for the song. I just find it ironic to use that particular quote.

The lead singer and writer of the song, Spencer Charnas, tries his best to portray the fear, frustration, and hopelessness that would have been a general experience in the annex. The lines “They’re getting closer and closer to me/Stripping my dignity with every brick as it’s broken/Stealing hope from my whole family” shows how belittling it must have been to have to give up everything just because of what religion they practiced. Her father had to sell his business; her whole family had to give up their lives and pack it all into a series of cramped rooms that had to be shared with six other strangers. I just love the dedication Charnas put into the storyline of the song because Anne Frank deserved nothing less than that, and if not, more. I know that Anne Frank might seem to be a bit overrated to some people, but please give the song a listen and take a tour of the Annex!

Brown Skin Girl Review

This moment is very bittersweet for me. My first blog as a senior, and last first blog as an MSA student. Agh! For my first post, I would like to review a verse a few verses of Brown Skin Girl by Beyoncé Knowles featuring Blue Ivy, Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, and Saint Jhn. The first two I am reviewing says:

Tonight I might fall in love, dependin’ on how you hold me

I’m glad that I’m calmin’ down, can’t let no one come control me

Keep dancin’ and call it love, she fightin’ but fallin’ slowly

If ever you are in doubt, remember what mama told me

This verse sounds like something that should be in an inspirational book for teenage girls. The lines, “can’t let no one come control me”, “she fightin’ but fallin’ slowly”, and “remember what mama told me” gives me those vibes.

Brown skin girl, ya skin just like pearls

Your back against the world

I never trade you for anybody else, say

Brown skin girl, ya skin just like pearls

The best think inna di world

I never trade you for anybody else, say

This verse gives me a young mother talking to her five or seven-year-old daughter, boosting her confidence. I think these lines are the most impactful because of the context. Also, although I do believe it could account for EVERY black female on this Earth, it just feels more-so targeted towards the younger (ages four to about ten) little girls. I am a firm believer in starting early, in regards to telling a child just how perfect they are. Comparing melanin skin to pearls is brilliant. I think it is most important to say, “your back against the world”. I would even go as far as to say your back against the world because the world can and will turn its’ back on you.

Here is the next part:

–

Have you looked in the mirror lately?

Wish you could trade eyes with me

There’s complexities in complexion

But your skin, it glow like diamonds

Dig me like the earth, you be giving birth

Took everything in life, baby, know your worth

I love everything about you, from your nappy curls

To every single curve, your body natural

Same skin that was broken be the same skin takin’ over

Most thinks out of focus, view

But when you’re in the room, they notice you

‘Cause you’re beautiful

I feel like these lines are targeted more towards the adult of the female AA race. I think this just based off of her saying “you be giving birth”. I also think it has an undertone about post-partum depression because she says, “know your worth”. I enjoyed that she referenced the stereotypes and somewhat facts of the naps and curves. I do also believe that she sort of referenced herself when she said “same skin takin’ over” because she is Queen Bey, you know? I am glad she said that being noticed is because of the beauty and not for obvious other reasons.

The last line I would like to review is:

“YOUR SKIN IS NOT ONLY DARK; IT SHINES AND IT TELLS YOUR STORY.”

This is the most important line for EVERY BLACK PERSON. I think it makes a statement since it is at the end.

Overall, the message of the song is amazing. I do thoroughly enjoy that it has an African tone in the words. The song is great. I strongly recommend it.

The Rose That Grew From Concrete – A Poetry Collection

Many people knew the late Tupac Shakur as a legend – one of the original kings of rap. He inspired many people of his time of glory and fame to express themselves through rap and speak their truths with words. His words touched the hearts of artists and non-artists and people like The Hate U Give‘s author, Angie Thomas. He was the Tupac. Though he was musically poetic, there are those who aren’t familiar with his literary works and if they are, they only know about The Rose That Grew From Concrete, the poem; however, The Rose That Grew From Concrete is not just a poem. It is an autobiographical poetry collection filled with descriptors and analogical words that en-captured Tupac Shakur as the man that he was – the man he wanted the world to see.

One tactic that is seen throughout his poetry is embedded in the language used throughout the collection. In fact, it isn’t hard to find. It’s in plain sight, hiding no secrets from the reader. It was a way of being raw and showing the audience that he had nothing to hide from them. This was his heart on paper – in words. Tupac used what we call today “texting slang”. Of course, that would not be the first thing I’d say about his writing scheme while talking to another about the work at hand. However, a lot of the language is shorthand. He used letters and numbers like ‘u’ and ‘2’ for ‘you’ and ‘to’. It was very simplistic. Although, I do believe he purposely wrote in that way to emphasize the underlying message and the power behind it. His words showed that even if you don’t speak in big words and fancy phrases doesn’t mean you don’t have power in your words. You just have to listen and pay attention regardless of speech or education or your background.

Another genius tactic that Tupac utilized was the length of his poetry. Most of his poems are under a minute long and a lot of the time he wrote in one brief stanza. In doing so, he gives the reader a longer opportunity to let the words sink in. An example of such from the collection is his poem What of Fame?. The poem is three lines long and he uses little capitalization. The words are brief and short. However, after even the first read, the reader gets an “ahh” moment. The words are short and simple but the many meanings that it carries gives the words baggage, making them heavy on the tongue, heart, and mind. The shortness of the poems overall could also be interpreted as the shortness life holds. Nearly all of Tupac’s poems addressed the baggage of life and what it was like to live in his shoes. He spoke the pain of life. In doing so, he added to the pain of life by providing the shortness of it in his words and stanzas. Brief, but heavy.

Tupac wanted to touch the hearts of many in this poetry collection. He was raw and allowed himself to spill his guts to those who dared to read. It is safe to say that any reader of this collection should be grateful to have read art. There is no recreation to his work – it stands alone. It stands tall and though short, they carry more heaviness and baggage than most people could imagine their lives having. That was the life of Tupac Shakur.

Into the Spiderverse: How an Unexpected Success Exceeded Expectations

When I heard that there was going to be an animated movie bringing together the Spidermen from different universes, I admitted scoffed at the idea. I didn’t know how on earth they would be able to pull off such a ludicrous idea. However, when I saw positive reviews from friends both on and offline, I decided to go with my sister to see if it was actually any good. I waited until the last few days it was in theaters, because I hate crowds, and I purposefully looked away from any reviews so that I could see the movie with a fresh pair of eyes. So, when I finally went to see the movie, I was shocked: this film was even better than I had expected it to be. It is now my favorite movie (right behind Megamind, which I may talk about later) and I find myself appreciating it more and more every time I see the film.

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is an animated movie telling the story of Miles Morales, a boy who is bitten by a radioactive spider and finds himself obtaining superpowers. His world’s Spiderman dies before telling him how to use his powers, so he finds himself both guilty for being unable to do anything and confused about how his powers work. However, he finds that the Spidermen from different universes have been sent to his world, so with their help, he refines his powers and helps the group save the multiverse from Kingpin, Doc Oc, and other notable Spiderman villains. There are many notable actors who helped voice characters in the film, such as John Mulaney, who voiced Spiderham, a pig from a cartoon world who has taken the mantle of Spiderman, and Nicolas Cage, who voices Spider Noir, a Spiderman who works as a detective in the late 1930s.

At first, Miles is really just as normal as any teenager: he listens to music, is sociable, cracks jokes, and likes to make art to express himself. His relationship with his parents isn’t the best that it could be, but he is mostly able to confide in them. He does have a stronger bond with his uncle, Aaron, and likes to go to him for advice more than he goes to his father (his father is a police officer and doesn’t approve of Miles putting stickers on places he shouldn’t).

When he gets bitten by the radioactive spider, everything for him changes. He doesn’t know how to properly control them, leading to him getting in all sorts of crazy shenanagins when trying to navigate his school without anyone knowing. He later meets the real Spider-Man while he fightst the Green Goblin, and Peter can tell right away that he has similar powers. He promises to help him learn how to control them- a promise he isn’t able to keep when he is killed by Kingpin.

He meets Peter B, the more lethargic Spider-Man, and is disappointed when he finds that he isn’t like his own world’s Spider-Man. They have a loose relationship- Peter doesn’t want to be Spider-Man, but has to so he can help Miles, and refuses to teach him even though Miles shows potential.

When they meet the other Spider-Men, they find that he isn’t as capable as the rest of them, since he has only has his powers for a little over a day, and refuses to let him help with getting back at Kingpin. He dejectedly goes to talk to Aaron, but is distraught when he finds out that Aaron is working for the villains. Him and the other Spider-Men are ambushed, and Miles is cornered by Aaron, who is killed by Kingpin for not doing his job once he realizes who Miles is.

After all of these setbacks and moments of heartbreak, one would think that Miles would certainly give up, right? That’s the oppisite of what he does. In an amazingly animated scene, he goes to the tallest building he can, sticks himself to the glass, and jumps.

This scene is framed to give us a beautiful perspective. Miles isn’t falling down; he is rising up, with shattered pieces of glass falling around him, and shows us in one beautiful scene his leap of faith and the journey he’s had to go on to get to this moment. The music is quiet. It feels tense. The scene imeediately cuts into him falling, flailing his arms in a panic. But just before he hits the ground, he slings his web, and flies up over the street.

This whole scene is, in my opinion, the best moment of the entire movie. He’s grown as a person, accepted his role, and knows how to control his powers. The line that is sung as he rises over the street is “don’t stop me now,” and that perfectly encaptures his journey; he didn’t stop, he kept growing, and will continue to grow, despite everything he’s been through.

I think we can all learn something from Miles’s journey, no matter who we are. It’s both an amazing story and a beautiful example of the media of animation at its finest. This movie, no matter who you are, has a story that everyone can relate to: one of growing up, learning how to cope with new situations, and rising up to face your fears head on. And that is a beautiful story to tell.

The Fear of Losing This

Florist is a band that makes three minute existential crises instead of music.

One of their songs, “The Fear of Losing This”, well-I’m actually losing my mind over it, even though the lyrics are intensely mundane. It’s something about how they fit the words with these strange vocals and background noises, it gets to me. Here’s the lyrics:

Open your eyes
And see what you have
But really I know inside it’s all the same in death
But my mind is mine for now

I never asked
To be here at all
So why do I have to face the fear of losing it?
Of losing why I live?

And if I just knew
I’d already be gone
I told you everything
That I had the chance to
And there is no more now
No more light golden low
There is only what I have
Until that goes

Now every night
I pray to the stars
I say please give me love
Or please just give me strength

The colors of love
They all become gray
When everywhere I’ve been
Won’t be there someday
It’s a beautiful thing
That I keep close to me
And I won’t forget
But nothing is mine to keep

Okay, so I am reading back over these lyrics, and they sound not only simple, but saddening. Slack. Slack is how I feel about this song when it’s put on paper like this.

However, I urge you to listen to it. It’s so different as music. It’s almost happy, or at least a questioning happy that I can attempt to call wholesome.

The song is the equivalent of laying down on a beach and waking to be a thousand feet from shore, choking on all of the water you didn’t notice until your eyes were opened. At least, that is what it makes me think of.

I did some background research on Florist, and turns out, they call themselves a “friendship project” rather than whatever they are supposed to be titled as. A band? God and a few angels? Who knows.

Florist is unusually unheard of, which only further prompts me to crave their lyrics. Not everyone has washed them down to “another sad indie band yet”. They still have time before they become mainstream and either fade from existence and cease to produce music or all together begin making music for mainstream kids, which would ultimately be worse. (This sounds quite pretentious, but I don’t mean for it to. What I am saying is that making this a “mainstream band” would take away from the secrecy in their songs, or whatever.) I really, truly would rather Florist stop making music than produce songs like Drake’s “God’s Plan” or Panic at the Disco’s newer music (these are just the examples that are easily found in my brain right now).

These are my favorite lyrics:

I never asked
To be here at all
So why do I have to face the fear of losing it?
Of losing why I live?

Scary stuff. What a strange way of thinking about this life, right?

“The Fear of Losing This” hurts my feelings unlike any other song I have discovered. It makes me even question the comfort I find in the lyrics, as they are generally not the type of optimist/nihilist approach I would route myself into. But yeah, interesting song. You guys should definitely check it out.

In Honor of the First Day of Spring, Here’s Three Pretty Poems

In honor of the first day of spring, here are three very important Mary Oliver pieces that remind me of spring and summer, or the feeling of warmness, wholeness in general.

Also, I’ve just been generally more inspired when I read warm-toned poems, mostly because I believe I just have “seasonal depression” and not “Depression depression”. These just make me feel better about myself and the world, and who doesn’t need more of that feeling in their life?

BREAKAGE

I go down to the edge of the sea.
How everything shines in the morning light!
The cusp of the whelk,
the broken cupboard of the clam,
the opened, blue mussels,
moon snails, pale pink and barnacle scarred—
and nothing at all whole or shut, but tattered, split,
dropped by the gulls onto the gray rocks and all the moisture gone.
It’s like a schoolhouse
of little words,
thousands of words.
First you figure out what each one means by itself,
the jingle, the periwinkle, the scallop
full of moonlight.

Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story.

I wanted to start with going over his piece because it seems like the first page of a new book. It’s really fresh, especially the way she uses her description. I like the word “cusp”, the phrase “broken cupboard” when describing a clam ,and “scarred” when describing a barnacle.

It amazes me how she can take her observations and not only write them beautifully, but give a lesson or sixth-feeling to you when exploring those observations.

This poem makes me feel: warm, like a full belly of strawberries.

A DREAM OF TREES

There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees,
A quiet house, some green and modest acres
A little way from every troubling town,
A little way from factories, schools, laments.
I would have time, I thought, and time to spare,
With only streams and birds for company,
To build out of my life a few wild stanzas.
And then it came to me, that so was death,
A little way away from everywhere.
There is a thing in me still dreams of trees.
But let it go. Homesick for moderation,
Half the world’s artists shrink or fall away.
If any find solution, let him tell it.
Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation
Where, as the times implore our true involvement,
The blades of every crisis point the way.

I would it were not so, but so it is.
Who ever made music of a mild day?

This poem really struck me after I read the line,”homesick for moderation.” When you look up the definition of moderation, it is the idea that you want to stay away from extremes and stick to something usual and relaxing, or normal. The idea that too much of a good thing is a bad one.

I also like the fact she will be “bending towards lament” while the “artists of the world” look for a solution to not falling away.

The idea of falling away of an artist strikes a cord with me. As artists we like to create and expand our creations into the public surface, but sometimes, reality hits us and we forget our “dream of trees.” I don’t know, that’s just how it made me feel.

OF LOVE

I have been in love more times than one,
thank the Lord. Sometimes it was lasting
whether active or not. Sometimes
it was all but ephemeral, maybe only
an afternoon, but not less real for that.
They stay in my mind, these beautiful people,
or anyway people beautiful to me, of which
there are so many. You, and you, and you,
whom I had the fortune to meet, or maybe
missed. Love, love, love it was the
core of my life, from which, of course, comes
the word for the heart. And, oh, have I mentioned
that some of them were men and some were women
and some—now carry my revelation with you–
were trees. Or places. Or music flying above
the names of their makers. Or clouds, or the sun
which was the first, and the best, and the most
loyal for certain, who looked so faithfully into
my eyes, every morning. So I imagine
such love of the world–its fervency, its shining, its
innocence and hunger to give of itself–I imagine
this is how it began.

-Mary Oliver

I wanted to end on this poem because it felt like the epitome of how I look at the world. I thought it was really interesting seeing how Mary Oliver specifically loves, as she is one of the most loving artists of both the world and of people that I have discovered.

It was also interesting how she specifically says that she is grateful for multiple, and short loves. It makes me kind of rethink how I ought to be loved, or how I should love others in general. This poem makes me feel temporary.

Album Review: BTS Edition! Pt 1.

Image result for bts persona album

Behind The Scenes of BTS

BTS: A Korean Boy group (Idol Group) consisting of seven members (From oldest to youngest) Kim Seokjin (Jin) , Min Yoongi (Suga) , Jung Hoseok ( J-Hope), Kim Namjoon (RM), Park Jimin (Jimin), Kim Taehyung (V), Jeon Jungkook (Jungkook). They debuted in 2013 and has have a steady growth and success rate thus far. They have recently release their new album (Map of Soul: Persona) and I am here to explain and break down the songs and my own personal meaning and reviews of the mini album.

Tracklist:

Intro: Persona (pt. 1)
Boy With Luv (pt. 1)
Mikrokosmos (pt. 1)
Make It Right (pt. 1)
HOME (pt. 2)
Jamias Vu (pt 2.)
Dionysus (pt 2.)

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Intro Persona:

“Someone like me ain’t good enough for music
Someone like me ain’t good enough for the truth
Someone like me ain’t good enough for a calling
Someone like me ain’t good enough to be a muse
The flaws of mine that I know
Maybe that’s all I’ve got really
The world is actually not interested in my clumsiness at all”

– Kim Namjoon

Image result for kim namjoon intro persona

Intro: Persona -Music Video ft. Kim Namjoon (RM)

Intro: Persona is exactly what it says. The intro. BTS always have intros to their albums that sets the mood for the rest of the song. This time it was created by their leader, who is known to be very wise and very aware of himself as man and the influence that he possess. Which is a great way to start this album. He has such a strange personal connection to himself and I wondered if this album was going to be an answer to the questions he was asking himself for years, considering that he is the one who writes majority of the song lyrics. The song itself starts off with a very prominent up beat hip-hop vibe. Then it circles in to RM’s first rapping lyrics. It starts with him questioning himself, but not surprisingly ends with a statement of something he knows he can fulfill. The song to me is extremely nice and gives homage to his older rapping styles before BTS as a whole became as popular as they are now. It is, hands down, one of my favorites songs from the album. The high paced fast rapping makes me want to dance and the emotion I can hear as he continues gives me chills. It proves that he’s getting better at accepting himself and that he is highly aware of what people are saying, but that he’ll keep on looking ahead at the coming future and leave the past where it lies.

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Boy With Luv:

(Hope world, ay)
Everyone says that I used to be so little and now I became a hero(Oh no)
I say that something like destiny was never my thing (Oh no)
World peace (No way)
A great order (No way)
I’m just gonna keep you safe
(Boy with luv)

– Jung Hoseok ft. BTS

Image result for Bts Boy with luv

Boy with Luv – Music Video ft. BTS and Halsey

Boy With Luv – This song is a trip from start to finish. Not only is it a absolute bop but it’s fun song that I feel anyone can sit back and just listen to on a car ride with the windows rolled down and their hair, or lack thereof, flowing in the wind. BTS has a least one fun song, and this time it happened to be the first group song of the album. It also features another artist, Halsey, who is known for her interesting, and sometimes controversial, songs and videos. (Fun Fact: Halsey has been a fan of BTS since 2015!) It gives me a chill 90’s vibe and I am infatuated with it to say the least. It’s a normal everyday song, paying respect to their fans for helping them through everything and the traditional riffs and beats any song would have. Basically, it’s a song I can listen to on repeat for a couple of years before I actually have the audacity to skip it.

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Mikrokosmos:

You got me
I dream while looking at you
I got you
Inside those pitch black nights
The lights we saw in each another
Were saying the same thing

– Park Jimin/Jeon Jungkook

This song is not one I can spend time again and again listening to. This song to me is a mood song. A song almost made, for me in particular, for a certain feeling or mood. t’s very sweet, and soft, but it also has it’s own somewhat up beat portion. Though listening to it just makes me sad. I haven’t an idea why, but it gives me a bitter sweet feeling. Maybe because in a way it’s suppose to be bitter sweet. I look up to all the boys in BTS but I can only give so much and they can only give so much, but together we can make a difference. Which I think is the meaning of the song. The song just puts me in my feelings and it’s a great example of why I love the band as a whole. Not many songs can force me to feel so much from the first 10 seconds like they can.

*The title Mikrokosmos references the ancient Greek philosophy of microcosm, the perception of viewing humans as their own little world or mikros kosmos. – (https://genius.com)*

———————————————————–

Make It Right

You are still beautiful
Just hold me silently like you did that day, that time
The reason I survived in hell
It’s for you, it was not for me
If you know, don’t hesitate and please save my life
I’m thirsty wandering this desert without you
So hurry and grab me quickly
I know the sea without you is the same as a desert

– Min Yoongi

Make It Right is a collaboration BTS did with Ed Sheeran. Ed Sheeran wrote the song and BTS interpreted it and added the Korean and English respectively. This one is almost like jazz? It has a very smooth feel to it and it seems to be something that was made specifically for calming tense nerves. It feels like i’m finally getting better after a particularity bad cold. It leaves something sitting in my chest and it feels nice to say the least, but it also feels bitter sweet again, similar to Mikrokosmos. Because, from what I read, the meaning it supposed to be about someone who is trying to make the word a better place. But that takes time and people, and you might never get to witness your plants grow. The seeds being planted doesn’t even mean it’ll make it that far. Which hurts my soul a lot more than it should.

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The last 3 songs i’ll review in pt 2. I split them up because this blog is getting fairly long, but also, I feel last three have their own vibes, somewhat separate form the rest of the songs in the album. They live in their own word if i’m being honest. Not to mention the last ones have such a unique feel that I may have to say more by default.

Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe: Part 2

Hello, Internet. It is I, Tyler, and I’m back with another literary review. And so, I am going to review part 2 of Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe in this post.

So I guess its time to get into this very weird and not necessarily child-friendly e-comic.

We left off at the end of part one where basically, Deadpool is insane and he kills of the narrator aka The Watcher. At the start of part 2, we see that some time has passed since Deadpool went psychotic. We learn that he’s killed any and all villains and superheros that he come across. Then we are immediately thrust into a fight between Spiderman (side note: Tom Holland is the best Spiderman) and Deadpool. This fight, unfortunately, ends with Spiderman taking a bullet and dying in front of a crowd of onlookers.

We then get a scene of Deadpool talking to himself about how he has broken the chains that once bound him. He speaks of a mysterious “them.” Here we start to infer that the “them” he is speaking of are the Marvel creators themselves as he says, “their precious Spiderman.”

After that, we are taken to a meeting between the final remaining Avengers and X-Men. We learn that most of the active and reserve roster for both groups has been killed off. Immediately following, we see the group die as Deadpool uses Pym Particles to blow them all to bits. He then kills the survivors namely Thor. After this, he goes on another spiel about how it has to be this way, and he’s giving them mercy by killing them and such. They basically made the antihero and antivillain.

Next he get rips apart by the Hulk, and so he decapitates Bruce Banner.Then we get scene where these women – lovers of the dead superheros and villain – make a contract with the Taskmaster (not even going to lie here guys, I had to ask around to figure out who the heck this man was – thanks again, Jackson).

And that ends part 2. The story is weird, but it gets even weirder in parts 3 and 4. Anyways, goodbye, internet. Catch you on the flip side. ✌️

Tracy Chapman’s “The Rape of The World”

Tracy Chapman is a singer/songwriter known for her heavy and meaningful material. In her song, “The Rape of the World” she discusses the wrongs of humanity against Mother Nature.

“The Rape of the World”

Mother of us all
Place of our birth
How can we stand aside
And watch the rape of the world
This the beginning of the end
This the most heinous of crimes
This the deadliest of sins
The greatest violation of all time

Within this first stanza, Chapman has only described who she is addressing, and vaguely what is happening. She says that what is happening is “the rape of the world” and goes on to implant the idea that this action is “the most heinous of crimes, …the deadliest of sins, the greatest violation of all time.” This gives the audience a predetermined view on what is to come; moreover, the crime itself.

The rhyme scheme for this stanza is very soft, including the slight rhyme of aside, crimes, and time. This slight rhyme puts an emphasis on these words. Chapman made this emphasis to make her message more pointed. It is well accomplished. It is a juxtaposition of Chapman’s soft voice. It almost makes the audience feel guilty already, before hearing the accusation and the crimes with detail.

Mother of us all
Place of our birth
We all are witness
To the rape of the world
You’ve seen her stripped mined
You’ve heard of bombs exploded underground
You know the sun shines
Hotter than ever before

In this verse, Chapman goes on to tell what all the persons being addressed has witnessed and is witnessing such as the “her stripped mined.” This is a reference to mining and it’s negative effects on Earth. It is a violation that was previously mentioned in the last stanza. The next action witnessed is the sound of “bombs exploded underground.” This is another reference to mining. It is a harsh way to clear Earth out beneath the crust. Chapman goes on to say that “You know the sun shines hotter than ever before.” This is a reference to global warming and the breaking down of the atmosphere and Earth’s natural UV shield.

Between each line, the piano adds a dramatic riff. This clarifies the solemn message and shows the audience that Chapman is serious about the issue at hand.

Mother of us all
Place of our birth
We all are witness
To the rape of the world
Some claim to have crowned her
A queen
With cities of concrete and steel
But there is no glory no honor
In what results from the rape of the world

In the third stanza, she claims that some people are hypocritical in the situation being presented by claiming to place Mother Earth on a pedestal but then living in big cities that are hazardous to Earth. They claim her as a queen, but no queen is treated in such a manner. This is to say that there is no glory or honor bestowed upon the earth and therefore what will result from “the rape of the world”, or the mistreatment of the earth. As mentioned in the first stanza, this mistreatment is the beginning of the end. Put simply, we the audience, are killing the our home, Earth.

Mother of us all
Place of our birth
How can we stand aside
And watch the rape of the world
If you look you’ll see it with your own eyes
If you listen you will hear her cries
If you care you will stand and testify
And stop the rape of the world

In the second to last stanza, Chapman reiterates her original question, “How can we stand aside and watch the rape of the world?” She goes on to describe what the audience would experience and understand if they stopped and paid attention .

“If you care, you will stand and testify and stop the rape of the world,” this is a call to arms. This is a call to stand up and make change to better help the Earth and not to cause so much damage to it.

Stop the rape of the world
Mother of us all
Mother of us all
Mother of us all
Mother of us all

The very last stanza is a repetition. “Stop the rape of the world” is one last call for humanity to stop their harmful ways. Chapman goes on to repeat the phrase, “mother of us all.” Tracy Chapman repeats this phrase a total of four times. This is to drive the guilt home. All throughout the song, the phrase “Mother of us all, place of our birth” is repeated at the beginning of each verse. This phrase is to make humanity realize that Earth is not just a planet but our home, mother, and birthplace. This is another guilt-trip tactic. This is to say that driving the whole song home with “mother of us all” repeated at the end is the mother of all guilt trip. Who would hurt their mother so badly?

The Books vs. the Movies

So, lately, I have been re-reading the Harry Potter series that I finished in the seventh grade. I’m not too sure what, exactly, made me want to do so, but here we are.

I am currently on the seventh and final book – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” – of the popular series, and I realized that I had nearly forgotten why I adored and enjoyed these books as much as I do. However, in comparison, I have come to dislike the movies because of my recent delve back into the Wizarding world; I understand that a movie’s budget can only go so far, but there are countless small details within the books that could have been incorporated into the films. For example, the main character, Harry Potter’s, cousin and uncle are blonde in the books, and in the movies, they both have very dark hair. It is miniscule differences in characteristics like this that cause me think to not ever watch the movies again, though I watched them all from the time I was in fourth grade.

In the books, a very crucial detail about the main character is that those that knew his mother, Lily, before she was killed when Harry was a year old, always told him that he “had Lily’s eyes” but looked just like his father, James, who was also murdered at the same time as his wife; he had the same face shape, messy, black hair and stature as James but had Lily’s green, almond-shaped eyes. In an interview with J.K. Rowling, the author of the series, she states that the actor, Daniel Radcliffe, that portrayed Harry Potter in the films’ eyes did not have to be green – the actor need not wear colored contacts every time he was on camera; she simply stated that it was very important that the actress portraying Harry Potter’s mother have the same-colored eyes as Radcliffe, whose eyes are blue, yet whenever Harry sees someone else’s memory that included his mother when she was 14 or 15 years old, the young girl that played her had dark brown eyes.

Personally, I am always a bigger fan of the original books, rather than their movie adaptations, because for as long as I can remember, I spent my free time laying in bed and reading a book. When I was younger, my parents never really let me watch the “Harry Potter” movies past the third one because it was a bit more violent, but I ended up watching the fourth one anyways and finishing the series around the time “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2” came out in theaters. I was always a huge fan of the series, but re-reading the books has really shined a light on the comparisons of them against the movies. And I can say for a fact that I still greatly prefer the books to the movies in this case – well, in most cases.