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Bruce Springsteen's Almost Dreamlike Song Nebraska

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In Bruce Springsteen’s almost dreamlike song “Nebraska” he sings about Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Carol Fugate. A young couple that went on a killing spree over eight days in Nebraska in the 1950s, killing ten people. The song is short and intimate despite it being a first-person narrative of a serial killer. Springsteen writes, “They wanted to know why I did what I did Well, sir, I guess there's just a meanness in this world.” as the last words of the song. This ending coupled with the historical background expresses a few themes that I believe Springsteen wanted to convey. The first being that people always seem to search for meaning in things, that sometimes have no meaning at all. Secondly, that isolation and loneliness can be a hard thing to cope with, and it is something that I have had to experience and learn throughout my life. …show more content…

The feeling of loneliness can be like a trap, the more you fall in, the more challenging it can be to get out. I first felt how isolating it can be as a little kid. My family picked up and moved to the Caribbean when I was in the second grade for my father’s work. Leaving all my friends behind was just the start. I felt trapped by my lack of ability to communicate with the people around me, and unable to relate to a culture that was so different from my own. I was only in the second grade so over time though the feeling faded. Luckily I learned to connect and make friends, but that memory has always stuck with me. That frustration with my inability to connect with others. There is significance to me in being able to remember something so clearly from so long ago. When some memories fade far too quickly. I presume Springsteen and many others can relate to how I felt, and maybe Charles Starkweather did as

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