Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” is a song by Cage the Elephant, and released as a single on June 16, 2008, but released in 2009 on the album Cage the Elephant . This song was written in the middle of the Great Recession of 2007-2009 in the United States and is heavily influenced by the economic issues during that time period. Matthew Schultz, a member of the band, told an interviewer about how he came up with the song and what inspired him to write it. Schultz explained how he was working in construction at the time he wrote the song, and how he asked a drug dealer why he did not stop doing drugs and selling them, to which he replied, “There ain’t no rest for the wicked” (“Cage the Elephant”) and that he has to work without rest in order to earn money, even if it meant that he could be arrested. “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” is a first person narrative and has a motif of events that reference Marxist criticism because it focuses on the idea that society is greatly impacted by the state of the economy and that people are willing to commit immoral acts to make a living. In the first verse of “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked”, a scene is set where the narrator is walking down the street when he is confronted by a prostitute who offers her services to him if he “pay[s] the right price” (Cage the Elephant, line 10). When asked why she is selling her body to complete strangers, the prostitute explains how “Money
In the second stanza, Dunbar refers to the emotional and physical abuse that imprisonment and oppression puts on both the caged bird and the African Americans. Dunbar begins the second stanza with,
This stanza states that the caged bird and African Americans need to be both physically and emotionally set free. The previously mention stanza suggests that the cage bird and African American will result to any means necessary to gain its freedom. The caged bird and African Americans may use extreme tactics to gain freedom, for example resulting to self-inflicted physical wounds. The self-inflicted wounds come from the battle for freedom. Dunbar describes why the caged bird beats his wing till its blood is red on the cruel bars because he must "fly back to his perch and cling when he fain would be on the bough a-swing"(African American Literature). The African Americans experienced this same kind of pain from fighting
Animals are what you used to be. Don’t you hate what you’ve become? Cold, gloomy and resentful. Our miserable life, turned around by a lifeless pig, who are we to disagree? It has rained so much that there’s nothing to look back. If this is paradise, it isn’t worth the price. Others, between the chains of repression, never notice how fragile their life is.
The overall message of the song,I feel, is one in which the animals sing of a place without humans. Old Major sings this to the animals to underline his vision of a place without human intrusion in the animal world. The song is a component that brings out a sense of unification of the animals. It helps to merge them as a group against Jones who abuses the animals. The song is an example of the animal’s cause being something that is more than simply an idea, but an actual set of beliefs in which the animals are able to see a world of fair treatment to the animals and a world that animals think should be like them ruling it and having everything go the way the animals think it should and none ideas of humans. I think that the animals are able to start the process of finding a voice, something that they are not given to in the world of the humans. It is this message that is so very important in the
“I cannot describe that dream to you. It was a dream of the earth as it will be when man has vanished. But it reminded me of something that I had long forgotten.” He leads out the old song, Beast of England, by talking about his dream. The song represents the fertile land of the England; also depict a dramatic picture of Old Major’s ideal world. “This singing of the song threw the animals into the wildest excitement.” The animals easily picked up the simple rhythm; all of the animals are agglomerate by the song. Moreover, in the lyrics of the song mentioned about the “golden future time”, represent the joyful life after they lead up a rebellion to overthrown human’s labor domination. The whole speech successfully built up animal’s confidence and their ambition to get rid of human’s ruling. Old Major gives a progressive speech that provides the motivation of sensing this, animals are keep working for human begins with nothing return; the reason why they are doing this, everything in the nature should be equally share by every creature in the world in stead of forcibly occupy by human, they have right to do get what they deserved; the result they may receive after they fulfill this, after the rebellion, it will comes a new politico, rules and better society. In addition, Old Major let those animals to believe that rebellion is their destiny; this is what God tells them. He concludes this speech with the singing, which
The author of Wicked,Gregory Maguire wrote his story to be engaging in many levels.Firstly, he uses expanded detail that engages readers who love background. Similarly, his writing is high quality and contains many similes, metaphors and personification. His characters are also very consistent in their beliefs. You can tell a what characters opinion will be just by how much you know about them. Finally, his writing is occasionally incredibly humorous, and one wants to keep reading, just to be able to laugh again.
In my extended chapter of Catcher in the Rye, I started off by making Holden a homeless person under the bridge, discombobulated on what to do with the rest of his life. I made Holden talk to Phoebe because she is one of the only characters that genuinely understands and connects to Holden on a personal level. Phoebe knows Holden's actions and motives and is the only character that can give subsidiary advice to him. When Holden was expressing his quandaries to Phoebe, she pointed out that Holden does not like anything in life. Holden responds by saying he would love to be the “catcher in the rye.”
To him, silence doesn’t really exist; silence is its own music because the sounds that are usually hidden through noise are heightened in the silence (Hermitary, 1). The sound of silence can convey feelings in a different sense. Take babies for example, when babies are content they stay silent but when they need comfort they cry. Silence is a sound that no one really recognizes, but it’s been an instinctive way of communicating. In music, silence is a tuneful element. Many songs use pauses to create tension, emphasize a point, or allow the listener to reflect. So, silence can convey emotion just as noise can by producing a depth in a song. In Cage’s first performance of “4’33”, where for four minutes and thirty three seconds the performer plays nothing, the audience was very confused. The premier was at Maverick Concert Hall, ideal for this type of performance since the back of the hall was open to the forest and allowed the sound to enter (Larry J Solomon, 1). Either the audience was unaware that they heard anything or understood where Cage came from. Throughout the years,”4’33” became an accepted philosophy due to the message the silence brought each individual to develop the inner meaning of the surrounding silence. The silence that Cage expressed created its own voice because each listener decided on which sound in the silence to focus on and relate to in context
When it comes to one’s sexual behavior, there are many ways in which it can be expressed. Some lean more towards a traditional, conservative side while others embrace the freedom of choice and are more open to outside ideas of sexual expression. Prostitution has been around for a majority of history but its connotation has shifted. Especially recently, the ideas about what is considered normal and deviant in terms of expressing one’s self sexually have changed or evolved. When taking a deeper look into what drives this business and the women to act in such ways, it may be more complex than is appears.
"Of the golden future time.. Soon or late the day is coming, Tyrant Man shall be o'erthrown, and the fruitful fields of England shall be trod by beast alone. Rings shall vanish from our noses, and the harness from our back, bit and spur shall rust forever, cruel whips no more shall crack." This song gave the animals hope that one day life on the farm would be better. Animal Farm is a mockery of a free society and the needs for change. When the pendulum of power swings drastically in either direction "absolute power tends to corrupt." The animals traded the rule of Mr. Jones for the pigs whom they believed would treat them more fairly, but once the pigs gained total control they lost sight of their goal to make life on the farm better for everyone.
John Cage’s outlook on silence is fascinating. He believes that there never is true silence. There is always a sound, even if it is your own blood rushing or your heart beating. The world is full of sounds. In Cage’s piece, 4’33”, he instructs the performers to perform the three movements of the piece without their instruments. Cage created this piece to show the individuals in the audience that there is not true thing as silence. Although many may believe that the action of the players maybe sitting on stage, not playing their instruments is silence. The music, in Cage’s opinion becomes the sounds of the chair squeaking, the programs rustling, the coughing and sneezing. There is never true silence.
Prostitution minimizes the worth of those who are providing a service and dehumanizes them. Prostitution suggests that a woman is just an object that can be purchased, in order to fulfill a lust or an urge that someone has. Giving the upper hand to whomever “purchases” the prostitute and is now the “owner” as if they are purchasing the body and not the service. This suggests that paying for a prostitute is similar to buying a slave, you are buying the rights to someone's body, therefore you “own” them. According to the objectification view, prostitution is dehumanizing to those
These lyrics tells the animals that there is a reason they have to work so hard, and that’s because they want to stay independent. “Beasts of England” helps keep the animals from protesting against Napoleon’s rules. It makes the animals think that the harder they work, the more freedom they will have, and the better their lives will be. Since the animals were working so hard, they think they have freedom from more free time or plentiful food, but they don't notice, until the last moment, that their food portions have gone down over time and all they do is work.
“From The Elephant Pit” is a story about a group of enemies becoming trapped in a hunter’s elephant pit. The hunter aids all of the animals and a man out of the trap, even though the lion says to leave the man because he won’t repay the hunter like the animals will. This parable demonstrates that unexpected good fortune may come to those who help a stranger in need. One may argue this because in the text, the lion helped the hunter when he needed it to return the hunter’s kindness. In the story, the lion even says, “But leave the man [...] he will forget your kindness and do you harm,” attempting to suggest something that would benefit the hunter. One day, the hunter fell ill and was unable to provide food for his wife. “He and his wife would
The second stanza is explaining how the caged bird persistently tries to escape the cage by constantly beating his wings on the cage, trying to break free. It disregards that this action is causing numerous bruises and soon will cause great pain because all it can ponder is the true freedom it can achieve. This same idea applies to the life of African-Americans