Sunday, April 5, 2009

Post #11, Visual Arguement

Here is the final piece to my song interpretation. It is a music video with still images. Enjoy!!

Theory Two, Arguement Four

The third verse of this song is the hardest of all to interpret for my second theory. Out of all three verses of the song, the third one is the one with the least amount of information to support the theory. After carefully analyzing the third verse, I drew this line from it. Tupac states, "I wish I could take the pain away, If you can make it through the night there's a brighter day." Maybe it was possible that Tupac put his mother throught alot of emotional and stress throughout his years as a child and teenager. From selling drugs, to ending up in incarcerated, it is a great possibility that each of those acts stressed his mother out more and more. This probably caused unwanted tensions between the two, and it maybe even got his little sister invlolved, which of all things is horrible to put a little child through. The last rhyme that I was able to find in the song that helps prove my theory was this one. He says, "Everything will be alright if ya hold on, It's a struggle everyday, gotta roll on." Even though he probably had problems with his mother, he stresses how sometimes one has to struggle just to survive. He strongly urges his mom to stay strong and keep fighting. Becuase on the bright side, there will be a better day.

Theory Two, Arguement Three

Moving onto the second verse of the song, I see quite a bit of interesting ones. Now that I start to think about it, this song could be either about his mother or his family in general. This song provides alot of good lines to try and prove both of the theories. Tupac states in the second verse, "They say I'm wrong and I'm heartless, but all along I was lookin for a father he was gone." When he says I was lookin for a father he was gone, does he mean gone as in passed away, or gone as in left him and his family to live and take care of themselves on their own? Its very hard to say for sure what exactly he means, but we can assume can't we? From other lines in the song, it's obvious that he never really knew his father well, so we can assume that since he was never there for Tupac, he could no longer show love and compassion for his father who had kicked him and his family to the curb. Without a father, the amount of emotional and mental stress that would occur to any child would be devastating. I would not be able to handle that kind of situation. Asides from that, the second verse does not offer any more evidence to prove my second theory.

Theory Two, Arguement Two

After finding two lines to support my second theory, I made an attempt to find more lines that could prove my theory. It gets harder and harder to find lines that that can prove this theory since it is vaguely described in the song. As stated by Tupac in the first verse, "Though back at the time, I never thought I'd see her face, Ain't a woman alive that could take my mama's place." This line can interfere with my first theory. It could possibly mean that he loves his mother so much, or it could mean that he now appreciates her but possibly at one time he was going through rough situations which made him feel different towards his mother. In the first verse, I also found a line which is quite interesting to interpret. Tupac says, "I shed tears with my baby sister, Over the years we was poorer than the other little kids." It seems that at one point in time during his life, him and his siter were going through rough times. Maybe it was because of their mother or father, or the fact that that they were so poor that they could not afford to live nicely. Either way it kind of seems obvious that Tupac did not have good childhood life. The most interesting line of the verse however, has to be this one. "When things went wrong we'd blame mama." They might have thought it was necessary to blame everything on their mother because of how she was not able to take of them properly. Overall, this verse was very interesting and full of good lines.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Theory Two, Arguement One

Although its obvious that this song is about Tupac's appreciation for his mother, it might be possible that the song also has another meaning behind it. After thinking about it for a while, I came to the conclusion that maybe this song is about Tupac's personal family issues. There are plenty of lines that purport to show that Tupac was possibly going through some issues with his mom and dad at the moment. For example, as stated in the first verse of the song, "When I was young me and my mama had beef, Seventeen years old kicked out on the streets". This says something about an action he may have done wrong. Whatever the action may have been, it ultimately caused his mom to kick him out of the house. This may have been the start of his family problems. Asides from possibly having problems with his mom, it seems like he also had problems with his dad. Also right at the beginning of the second verse, Tupac mentions, "No love from my daddy cause the coward wasn't there. He passed away and I didn't cry, cause my angerwouldn't let me feel for a stranger." These words are very deep coming from anyone. But then again, how can he feel pain for someone he barely knew? Because he did not have a father for most of his life, he most likely diverted to other people who would show him love and appreciation.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Theory One, Arguement Four

After attempting to interpret the third verse, I came to the conclusion that this song is definately dedicated to Tupac's mother. It is also indeed trying to show how much appreciation and love he has for his mother. He misses how when he was in doubt, his mother would give him some good words of advice, and it would motivate him to do the right thing. He remembers his childhood and how his mom did her best to provide him with everything he could have possibly wanted. He thanks her for how she raised him as a child. Basically, he is repeating how he plans to show her that he understands what she went through. He states in the third verse, "I gotta thank the Lord that you made me, There are no words that can express how I feel". This shows once again how he constantly thanks her for not only taking care of him, but also for concieving him, how wierd but understandable. He wishes that he could do something to ease the pain of a such a hard life, but realizes that all he can do is hold on and hope the struggles fade. There is much repetition in this verse to show how he cares for his mother. For example, also stated in the song was "Pour out some liquor and I reminsce, cause through the drama, I can always depend on my mama". This is another perfect example to illustrate the appreciation he had for his mother. By stating that he could always depend on his mama, he shows everyone that she is most likely the most important figure in his life, along with his only sister.

Theory One, Arguement Three

After looking at the second verse of the song Dear Mama, it is still clearly obvious that the song is written towards Tupac's mother in order to show his appreciation for her. In fact, this verse is the most interesting one, considering it has the most meaningful rhymes out of the whole song. As stated in the second verse, "No love from my daddy cause the coward wasn't there, He passed away and I didn't cry, cause my anger wouldn't let me feel for a stranger". This goes to show that apparently he did not have a loving and supporting father throughout his childhood and teenage years. Because of this, it might have cuased him to be the person who he was in the song. Since he had no father, he probably grew a very strong relationship with his mother, who was always there for him. Resorting to anything in order to make money, Tupac started dealing drugs just to put food and money in his mothers hands. Tupac says in the song, "It feels good puttin money in your mailbox, I love payin rent when the rent's due". He feels obligated to take care of his mother no matter what he has to do or go through. He wants to show her his appreciation for her, because he remembers all the nights that she would come home late from work and still struggle to make a meal for him and his sister.