A Life's Struggle

Ian Quey

Mr. Howarth

English 102

27 September 2005

A Life's Struggle

In second half of Pink Floyd's album "The Wall," the titles and lyrics to the songs tell a story of a man who is lonely, lost, and scared to the point of paranoia, and after reading and thoroughly analyzing the lyrics I noticed that "The Wall" which Pink describes is not a physical object but a mental wall constructed out of bad memories and terrible experiences he witnesses that have had negative effects on him throughout his life. He feels as though society has done nothing but harm him. Pink does not see any positive effects so he sees no reason for why he should not construct this "wall" in order to distance himself from society. This album portrays the story of a man who isolates himself and views everyone as a threat, but then realizes that he cannot exclude everybody from his life and almost goes crazy from the whole ordeal.

The song "Hey You" starts the second disc of the album and it describes the transformation that Pink undergoes, showing what he feels and sees after he has completed the construction of his "wall." The lyrics describe someone asking if anyone can hear or see him, or maybe it is Pink's conscience talking, trying to get his attention when it says "Hey you, out there in the cold getting lonely, getting old. Can you feel me?" This shows how Pink has completely shut everyone else out of his life, because the only person he can talk to is himself in self-thought.

The next couple of songs continue this theme of someone or something being lost and lonely seeking help. Then with the songs "Nobody Home" and "Vera" his conscience starts to talk to his mind and pleads with him to change his ways. The song "Bring the Boys Back Home" shows how he weighs his options on whether changing is what he should really be doing, because the song describes how Pink's mother is controlling and overly protective of him, which is one of the reasons why he constructed the wall in the first place.

Throughout the next few songs Pink starts to show an interest in changing. The song "Comfortably Numb" describes how he can no longer feel anything and that he wants to once again have feeling, but changing will be no easy task. So the next song "The Show Must Go On" shows Pink finally