a. “I’m an individual, yea, but I’m part of a
movement” “Wings”
(Macklemore)
i. The speaker uses paradox to create a
contradiction between himself and his role in
society. He acknowledges that he is physically his
own person, but his beliefs and mentality are
uniformed with the rest of society. The character
also implies a tone of obedience as he realizes that
he is actually only a fragment of the world. He
provides a contrast between the large-scale size of
society to himself and how he feels minuscule in
comparison. The speaker understands that society
has persuaded him into believing that he is
independent, but in reality only conformed
primarily.
It becomes apparent to the narrator that, “There’s
wealth enough; I need no more...The world no
longer let me love;/ My hope and Treasure lies
above” (Bradstreet). She realizes that she does not
need anymore than what she has and accepts that her
belongings are now gone. Instead of sulking about
her lost prize possesions, she is content knowing that
her belongings will make it to Heaven.
The speaker in the song Wings in the beginning
believed if he wore Jordans he would be the coolest
kid. As the song goes on, however, the kid changes
his attitude and now thinks Jordans are not special
and are a normal pair of shoes. He feels betrayed by
Nike and Michael Jordan because the speaker feels
Jordans did not make him an individual as he
thought they would. “But see I look inside the mirror
and Phil Knight tricked us all / Will I stand or
change, or stay in the box.” The speaker uses
symbolism to show his changing feelings. The
mirror is used to look at one’s self and when the
speaker looks inside the mirror he has an image of
Phil Knight. Phil Knight being “inside” the mirror
symbolizes the image Nike created for Jordans and
how the image controlled people like the speaker to
buy Jordans. There is also an irony when the speaker
is deciding to “stand for change, or stay in the box”.
In the beginning of the song the speaker is taking the
shoes out of the box to become cool and now the
speaker is putting the shoes back in the box to get
out of Nike’s influence. The symbolism and irony
demonstrates that the speaker feels abandoned by
Nike because the Jordans in the end did not make
him cool or an individual.
The speaker in Versus Upon the Burning of Our
House misses her material items and wants them
back. “My pleasant things in ashes lie.” The
speaker’s personality and what she believes in is
expressed well in this quote. She is one who believes
in materialistic items as the most important thing in
life, much like Franklin. In the beginning of the
poem, the speaker mentions all the things she can no
longer do in her home. These “pleasant things” are
burned and gone forever. The speaker is immature
as she fails to realize she is lucky only her house
burned down and that she did not burn to ash much
like her possessions.
In the poem When I Heard the Learned Astronomer,
Whitman uses the meaning of certain words and
phrases in order to connect back to wider themes of
the poem. The speaker describes how the
astronomer's lecture made him feel, "when he
lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick"
(Whitman). The double meaning of the word
"unaccountable" both relays how the astronomer's
lecture made him feel by also being ironic in the use
of the root word "count" as a reference to what the
astronomer had been lecturing about “charts” and
“figures.” The speaker in this poem is realizing how
sickened he is by this lecture and how all the people
applauding his lecture are conforming to this
scientific way of life that he does not want to be a
part of.
The importance of individualism is amplified in the
quote “These nikes help me define me, but I’m
trying to take mine, off.” He uses a paradox by
saying that the shoes help the speaker be an
individual, but he doesn’t want to wear them
because the effect his life negatively. Macklemore
is portraying that the speaker wants to escape society
by becoming an individual, and using the Nikes to
do so. However, he realized that he was just
conforming like everyone else, so he decides to get
rid of the nikes. The speaker is desperate to become
an individual, so he tries to undo his conformist
ways by getting rid of the shoes that were his entire
livelihood.
In Verses upon the Burning of our House, Anne
Bradstreet’s feelings towards her house and
possessions drastically change when her house burns
down and she loses everything. Most people would
expect someone in this situation would be angry, but
she said, “There's wealth enough; I need no
more. Farewell, my pelf; farewell, my store.” The
meticulous song-like tone in this poem starts out
dreamlike and dark, but ends in this accepting and
ready to move on cheerful tone. This is significant
because it shows that her materialistic possessions
no longer bear any weight in her life and that when
she loses them she is happier and freer.
After the character realized that material objects are
not important, she explains that god is more
important. She claims that “thou hast a house on
high erect-Fram’d by that might architect-with glory
richly furnished-stands permanent, though this be
fled.” Bradstreet uses the house as a metaphor for
heaven. The framer is actually god. She is saying
that the heaven is permanent, although material
items can always be lost. Therefore, heaven is her
motivation for rejecting material items. Her actions
in the present are guided by her desire to have a
peaceful afterlife.
Macklemore tells a story of a kid through his
song Wings. The little boy is facing social problem,
which he has come to terms with. As the speaker
states, “I’m an individual, yea, but I’m part of a
movement” (Macklemore). The character realizes
that what he once thought was individuality,
happens to be what society is demanding, and in the
metaphor of the song society wants Nike sneakers.
The quote uses first person, which is ironic because
“I” mirrors individuality, but “I” does not mirror
being part of something. Macklmore’s use of “I” in
this situation proves that the speaker feels trapped.
Although the speaker dreads being part of a
movement, there is a sense of being stuck in a cycle
of civilization.
The speaker in Macklemore’s Wings believes that
consumerism and material items seek to suppress
individuality and lead to a society full of
conformists. The speaker, while talking about his
obsession over shoes, says, “I wanted to be cool/ and
I wanted to fit in/ I wanted what he had” in order to
show how his need for material objects causes his
obsession to fit into society. The speaker’s point of
view as an individual who wants to conform to a
larger entity through consumerism and material
items like shoes, shows how material objects lead to
a lack of individuality. By obsessing over obtaining
material objects in order to be accepted by society,
the speaker is showing how material objects are
harmful to independent individuals.