Needle in the Hay Song Analysis Essay Example

Needle in the Hay Song Analysis Paper â€Å"Needle in the Hay† by Elliott Smith Your hand on his arm The haystack charm Around your neck Strung out and thin Calling some friend Trying to cash some check Hes acting dumb Thats what youve come To expect (Chorus) Needle in the hay Needle in the hay Needle in the hay Needle in the hay Hes wearing your clothes Head down to toes A reaction to you You say you know what he did But you idiot kid You dont have a clue Sometimes they just Get caught in the eye Youre pulling him through *Chorus* Now on the bus Nearly touching This dirty retreat Falling out 6th and Powell A dead sweat in my teeth Going to walk, walk, walk Four more blocks Plus the one in my brain Down downstairs To the man Hes going to make it all ok I cant beat myself I cant beat myself And I dont want to talk Im taking the cure So I can be quiet Whenever I want So leave me alone You ought to be proud That Im getting good marks *Chorus 2x* In health class, we just finished a unit on drugs and addictions. We learned about the different classifications of drugs, their effects, and symptoms of addiction. Our current assignment is to analyze a song that describes the negative effects of drugs, and share our personal reaction to it. We will write a custom essay sample on Needle in the Hay Song Analysis specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Needle in the Hay Song Analysis specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Needle in the Hay Song Analysis specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The song I chose is â€Å"Needle in the Hay† by Elliott Smith. This song can be interpreted in many different ways, but it’s almost always recognized as being about drugs, specifically heroin. Though Smith only became addicted to heroin in his later life, he writes about drugs, alcohol, and addiction in many of his songs, from his first album on. â€Å"Needle in the Hay† seems to be about a girl who is addicted to heroin, and is in a relationship with a guy who is beginning to use heroin himself. I chose this song because it’s beautifully written, and uses many interesting metaphors to help tell the story. The first line in the song is â€Å"Your hand on his arm, the haystack charm around your neck. † I think this is saying that she is beginning to become a bigger part of his life, but she is bringing her addiction into it also. â€Å"Strung out and thin, calling some friend, trying to cash some check. † The girl is thin from heroin use, as the drug causes loss of appetite, which leads to weight loss. She is stressed from not having the drug, so she calls a friend, hoping she can buy more. â€Å"He’s acting dumb, that’s what you’ve come to expect. † Her boyfriend knows what is going on with her, but he plays dumb and doesn’t acknowledge it. She knows that he knows, but doesn’t say anything. The song then goes to the chorus, which just repeats â€Å"Needle in the hay†, referring to the hidden, unspoken addiction(s) in the relationship. The next verse begins with â€Å"He’s wearing your clothes, head down to toes, a reaction to you. † I don’t think that he is literally wearing her clothes; I think it is a metaphor meaning that ever since he’s been with her, he’s becoming just like her, especially after acquiring the addiction. â€Å"You say you know what he did, but you idiot kid, you don’t have a clue. The girl thinks that she knows the guy so well, but she does not realize the severity of the situation, or the fact that she has brought this on him. â€Å"Sometimes they just get caught in the eye, you’re pulling him through. † Sometimes people just get caught up in bad things, and she’s only worsening his problem. In the third verse, the point of view seems to shift from third person into the girl’s eyes. â€Å"Now on the bus, nearly touching this dirty retreat. † The girl is going to get drugs, and she’s almost there. She knows what she’s doing is wrong, but by now it almost feels like a comfort, or an old friend. Falling out, 6th and Powell, a dead sweat in my teeth. † She’s now walking to the place where she’s going to get her drugs. The â€Å"dead sweat in my teeth† part is a bit hard to understand but I have a few ideas. It may just be symbolizing her craving, her need for the drug. It may be referring to the actual condition of her teeth, as heroin can cause teeth rotting and gum disease. Or, it could be a combination of both. â€Å"Going to walk walk walk, four more blocks, plus the one in my brain. Down, downstairs, to the man, he’s going to make it all okay. † Her addiction is so serious that she is willing to walk blocks and blocks to get to th e drug. She feels that once she gets it from the dealer, she will feel better and everything will be okay. She is dependant on the drug. â€Å"I can’t beat myself, I can’t beat myself, and I don’t want to talk. I’m taking the cure, so I can be quiet whenever I want. † She has gotten to the point where she no longer has faith in herself, and she needs the drug to feel okay. She’s so focused on the drug and feeling better that she’s becoming withdrawn and shutting the rest of the world out. She’s using heroin to ease her pain; she thinks that it will make things easier. â€Å"So leave me alone, you ought to be proud that I’m getting good marks. She wants everyone to leave her alone. She wants to keep her problem a secret, so she tries to hide it by doing well in other aspects of life, perhaps school or work. I think that this song’s view of addiction and the problems that come with it is simply brilliant. It shows the depen dency on the drug, the user’s personal feelings and hopes for what the drug will do, and the way drug addiction can affect relationships. What I learned in health class helped greatly with this project. I have loved this song for a long time, and getting this in-depth look at it by doing the analysis has only made me love and appreciate it more.

Cruelty of Man Professor Ramos Blog

Cruelty of Man Cruelty of Man â€Å"Going to Meet the Man† by James Baldwin tells the story of a man named Jesse who is extremely racist, but is uncontrollably attracted to African Americans, while simultaneously wanting to torture them. The reason for this is Jesse’s past experience as a little boy watching the lynching of a black man that supposedly shoved a white woman. When Jesse arrives at the lynching, the black man has been striped of his clothes and his hanging from a tree branch by his wrists. There is fire underneath him, and white men are lowering him into the fire, pulling him out, and dipping him back in repeatedly. At one point, a man approaches the black man and mutilates his genitals beyond repair. The black man cries out in pain from the torture. They continue to burn the man until he dies, then tear apart the rest of his body to the point where he is unrecognizable. Throughout the whole ordeal, Jesse, as a child, becomes aroused at the sight of the black man being tortured. This vignette is telling of how normalized lynching African Americans was and how it affected American society. James Baldwin wrote in the lynching of the black man as a sort of casual gathering. Within the text, he refers to it as a â€Å"picnic,† which holds an extremely positive connotation (Baldwin 1339). However, the connotation is inaccurate when applied to the actual event that takes place. Baldwin portrays the lynching as nonchalant as the fact that, â€Å"torture killings could be so casually and nonchalantly represented stops us in our tracks, evoking a sensibility and a culture that seem puzzling as well as repellent,† (Garland). Baldwin is purposely attempting to make the audience uncomfortable with the situation because it should be uncomfortable. However, he is upping the ante by portraying it nonchalantly, which may even be somewhat infuriating to some readers. Baldwin has a strong grasp of what to say to invoke a reaction from his readers. I am able to invoke this same reaction through the creation of a collage focusing on the scene of the lynching. I created a collage based around the lynching of the black man on the basis of detail and significance. During the lynching, the main character reveals many characteristics of the black man, showing that he is the most important thing in that setting, and the rest of the people mean close to nothing. I represent that through the amount of detail within the collage. All of the spectators are blank, with no expressions whatsoever. The black man, however, holds extreme detail throughout his body. This is meant to represent how in the story, the other people around were an afterthought, while the black man was the main focus of the main character, as the man is the source of his lifelong attraction to African Americans and torturing them in any way he can. I also included a much more detailed version of the man to show just how grotesque the act of lynching him is. However, the blankness of the audience behind him shows how they see it as a casual experience, not repelled at all by their own actions (Garland). The details in the work reveal what is most important. I chose a collage over every other medium because of how fragmented it looks. The story of the lynching, from the main character’s point of view, is told by a child, who may not have an accurate representation of the event in his memory. Children are known to have their memories somewhat warped as they age, which may have happened with the case of the main character in this story. I used a collage to represent how fragmented this memory might be, while also providing as much detail as the main character remembers from his childhood. The pieces within the collage also represent all of the pieces of society and how they have come together to commit an atrocity and stain on the human race. However, all of these pieces could be rearranged in some way to make the scene different, just as society could change and realize that the hateful act depicted in the collage is wrong and unjust. â€Å"Going to Meet the Man† by James Baldwin was written as a reflection of society in a way that makes society want to change. By showing how displeasing, yet casual the act of lynching African Americans is, Baldwin is exposing society for how cruel it is and evoking an emotional response from his audience. I am able to do this same thing with my collage. It evokes a response from the audience with its visual composition. Overall the inclusion of a lynching as a casual experience is what drives both works and sends the message that society is cruel and should question itself. Baldwin, James. â€Å"Going to Meet the Man.† The Norton Anthology: American Literature: 1865 to Present, edited by Robert S. Levine, W. W. Norton Company, 2017, pp 1331-1343. Garland, David. â€Å"Penal Excess and Surplus Meaning: Public Torture Lynchings in Twentieth-Century America.† Law Society Review, vol. 39, no. 4, Dec. 2005, pp. 793–833. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1540-5893.2005.00245.x.

Universal Health Care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Universal Health Care - Essay Example The current system of healthcare basically seeks community and society influences to make healthcare better for the average consumer, but some critics who advocate universal healthcare say that the system of managed care is run not by concern for the customer, but by the bottom line of profits. It is therefore not a community healthcare organization necessarily, but a consumer one. â€Å"Patients expect the managed care provider to help them manage their relationship with their health plan. Providers should supply patients with information about health plan changes by their employer and assistance in discussing their health plan preferences with their employer. The provider can encourage patients to take responsibility for their relationship with the health plan, but also should have processes in place to assist the patient in working with the health plan to address issues such as care denials or other service issues† (Tomczyk, 2002). This addresses customer service principles rather than general wellness. consumer care, such as currently existing programs like Medicaid and Medicare that provide programs that increase accessibility for the poor and elderly. Other countries such as Canada have made medical care universally accessible to everybody in the country. Accessibility, as well as education, is an important goal. If a person is poor or elderly, they are going to be less likely in the US to get quality healthcare and have insurance, and in many cases, it is a problem of access as well as opportunity. For poor minority immigrant families for example, â€Å"reducing Medicaid eligibility for these children will not necessarily save money as long as children remain eligible for costly emergency care† (RAND, 2002). Many immigrant families find it hard to navigate the existing pattern of federalized programs on a state and local level in terms of eligibility and access. educational programs