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Brenda's Got A Baby Analysis

Decent Essays

In the case of Brenda, there are many sociocultural and psychosocial issues that are heard in the lyrics to Tupac’s, “Brenda’s Got a Baby”. The song capitulates the shame of Brenda having a baby at a young age, here we see the breakdown of what is considered “abnormal” in society today. Tupac refers to her “not having a brain”, this implication would mean that most likely Brenda has had no education or very little at best. Here we see a major sociocultural problem that doesn’t just exist in Brenda’s case but in many young girls whom are brought up in poverty and have been thrown in the armpit that are the ghetto. The ghetto, or urban housing, is the worst place to grow up and we see the effects of constant forms of oppression. We also find …show more content…

The lyrics Tupac used when describing how Brenda had her baby in the bathroom by herself, not knowing what “to throw away and what to keep” (Clarku, 2018) and then throwing the baby in the trash could be seen as an example of critical practice theory. Although it may be more common for young girls to have babies in her community, society in general looks down on it. She may have believed that by having her baby in secret and throwing it away, she would escape the negative societal perspective. A few lines that show functionalist theory is Tupac describing how she has no money, so she tries to sell drugs and when that doesn’t work out, she starts prostituting herself which then Tupac says, “…it’s paying the rent, so she really can’t complain” (Clarku, 2018). Brenda is trying to contribute to the norms of the culture as well as trying to remain stable and to continue to function well in society. Another important theory to look at is cultural perspectives. Tupac mentions this street culture by saying, “just cause your in the ghetto doesn’t mean ya can’t grow” (Clarku, 2018). If culture is defined as “including all things human such as norms, values, customs, symbols, thoughts, traditions, politics, religions, languages, philosophies, and material objects” (Barker, 2003 & Turner, 1998 as cited in Rogers, 2017 p. 130), then recognizing how the ghetto culture has affected a young girl is extremely relevant and

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