The Mirror To Me : What Is A Mirror To Me?

The meaning of a mirror the way you look at yourself in a positive or negative way. What the mirror represent is your reflexion. ”We're going to build a mirror factory first and put out nothing but mirrors

The universe is created for society to cherish all God’s creations; it could be anything to admiring nature to loving all animals. The expectations for the world are difficult to maintain, so unfortunately, society often leads to major destruction. There is unnecessary homicides, animal cruelty, toxic waste in the rivers and many more heart-wrenching actions that deteriorates the world. As a society, we have to turn a negative into a positive, but firstly, we have to change ourselves before we help others. Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror”, exposes all of the humanity issues and suggests that we should fix the world by recognizing our flaws first. The theme of the song is about self-improvement and imagery, tone and repetition are the poetic devices that are used in the song.

This paper primarily explores Michael Jackson’s song, "man in the mirror." The song "man in the mirror" is inspirational about making a positive impact and personal redemption in the world. It was released in 1988. This catchy song tries to explain that changing the world is possible (Wallerstein 2). Many sociological concepts are displayed by Michael Jackson in the context of song’s lyrics. The band of the song tries to express their concerns with the actions and views of the world of the present day. Basically, the band reflects upon the world's realism as their question the mentality. This song is surrounded by the

Man in the Mirror, by Michael Jackson. Written by Siedah Garrett and Glen Ballard. – Audio text, song lyrics

Throughout history, dominant ideologies have often clashed with other ideologies, causing contradictions. In Chapter 7 of A Different Mirror, Ronald Takaki writes about the contradictions found in ideologies in US history, especially those concerning the Mexicans in Texas and California. In the 1800s, the market revolution ran the country. As new inventions, such as the cotton gin, were introduced, Americans sought to make raw goods faster and cheaper. As a result, they looked for cheap labor and more land. Believing in the Manifest Destiny, they looked westward, where there was an abundance of land. In moving west, the Americans encountered Mexicans that had recently become Americans due to the change in the Mexican-American border. This

"Man in the Mirror" was written by Glen Ballard and Siedah Garrett and co-produced by Michael Jackson, and released from the album Bad on August 31,1987 and released as a single January 16,1988 (YouTube). Siedah Garrett had an idea about a man looking in a mirror in her head for quite some time and took her ideas to her writing partner Glen Ballard. Once Garrett shared her lyric ideas, Ballard added some soulful vocals to help make the song become more powerful, which helped make the lyrics even stronger. The straightforward lyrics about making a change to yourself first caught Michael Jackson’s attention for his album Bad he was working on. “His chemistry with Garrett was so strong that he invited her to duet with him on another Bad single” (Yahoo! Music). The uplifting lyrics of making a change to yourself first, with the combination of Michael Jackson’s voice took off on the charts in no time. “Even though it wasn't a song he wrote himself, it was a message that was strongly identified with him and reflective of his own philosophies, as demonstrated through his actions and expressed in some of his own lyrics” (YouTube). “Man in the Mirror” became a world-wide hit in the late 80’s helping to inspire people to make a change within themselves and to help others.

Most people in today’s society are not pleased with their image, whether it is physically or how they form their character. In “Enhance Your Body Image” (2015) Rebecca J. Donatelle opens her essay with “When you look in the mirror, do you like what you see? If you feel disappointed, frustrated, or even angry like Ali, you’re not alone.” She continues with a study depicting 80 percent of women are dissatisfied with their appearance (p.339). This does not only mean physical appearance; Santiago Quintana in “The Space In-Between” (2015) talks about how he did not belong in his social environment because resulting in him being bullied. A person’s values are molded by cultural influence, friends and family; furthermore, to be appreciative of

“The look of you’s enough. You haven’t seen yourself in a mirror lately.” (pg.147) Mirrors

The mirror is what society sees and it has the power to see whatever it wants. Society’s expectations for people stem from “a matter of the the construction of their inner eyes, those eyes with which they look through their physical eyes upon reality” (3 Ellsion). The “inner eyes” represent consciousness and what they really feel about class, race, and gender. These eyes categorize people into different groups, which cause them to have separate expectation for each group of people. If the person that they see lives up to their expectation in a passive manner, they will ignore them, but if a person stands up for himself in a independent manner then there’s a problem. To the inner eyes, if people do not fit into a certain category they are labeled as undesirable. Those judged must be passive in order to to avoid preconceived notions by the people judging them. In the story, the main character bumps into a man, who then calls him a insulting name, resulting in the main character physically attacking him. Due to racial stereotyping, the report in the newspaper claims the white man was mugged. Because the main character acts out of character to defend himself, he is labeled as

“Man in the Mirror” is about a man who believes that only by changing himself will he be able to change the world. The main focus of the song is a man’s struggle to improve himself morally after witnessing his inability to impact the lives of those in need. Michael Jackson reflects on how the world around him is suffering while he lives a life of comfort, and the guilt triggers his decision to change himself so that he can eventually help the world. . The song raises up questions such as,“What purpose does an individual serve in a community? How can we bring about positive changes to the world? How can one person make a major impact in the world? “Man in the Mirror” sends a very universal message, basically telling the world to improve themselves individually so that the whole improves as a result. The discussion will focus more on the symbolical lyrics because there is a lot of straightforward vocabulary in each verse.

Even in the society we live in today, we strive to look like someone else. The pressure definitely comes from others and the society we live in, I feel the only reason we look in the mirrors and dislike something about us is because we have an unrealistic image of what we want to look like.

The Buddhist mirror is a Zen concept that demonstrates the ideal mind and how it should operate. The idea behind it is that an ideal mind is clear or without thought, like a mirror is. A mirror is not attached to anything, it solely reflects what is present, “...a "mirror-mind," one that is uncluttered, free, and therefore empty. Just like a mirror, a mirror-mind simply reflects what comes before it” (Brannigan 102). Human life and experience distort everyone’s mind or mirror. Often people’s minds more closely resemble fun house mirrors, which present a distorted picture instead of reality. Emotions, bias, moods can all color or change memories or perception, and ‘cloud’ the mirror. For Buddhists, the cause of all the distortions is thirst and desire, so in order to achieve an accurate reflection, Buddhists must move beyond attachment and let that go. According to Zen tradition the way to do that is meditation. However, to fully be without attachment, the

The pop artist Michael Jackson known as the king of pop released "Man in The Mirror" on January ninth, 1988. Glen Ballard and Siedah Garrett composed the popular record and Quincy Jones produced it with the collaboration of Jackson himself. People in general thinks of it as one of his best works. The record was nominated for a record of the year at the Grammys' and it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks. The main idea of the song is about a change in Jackson’s perspective after seeing the less fortunate and realizing how selfish he has been and asking the people to change their views with him.

Here is the thing, all is one. When you look at another person, you aren't looking at a mirror of yourself, you are literally looking at yourself.

In Sylvia Plath’s poem, Mirror, the big overall message is the notice that growing old is inevitable. You can’t go back and relive your youth, all you do is age. In this poem, a mirror is speaking about itself, this is ironic because mirrors don’t talk. “I am silver and exact, I have no preconceptions.” (Plath 1052). Then, there is a lady, looking at herself through the years as she ages. Appearance is such a high topic in this society now days because it is how people look at you. “Appearance counts.” (Reisner). How many times do you look in a mirror a day? Or a window or anything that even shows your reflection? Many people focus on their appearance because that is normally the first thing people notice. Have courage to be yourself and not worry about what others think about you.