Floyd The Wall

Ian Quey
Mr. Howarth
English 102
27 September 2005
A Life's Struggle In second half of Pink Floyd's album "The Wall," the titles and lyrics to the songs tell a story of a man who is lonely, lost, and scared to the point of paranoia, and after reading and thoroughly analyzing the lyrics I noticed that "The Wall" which Pink describes is not a physical object but a mental wall constructed out of bad memories and terrible experiences he witnesses that have had negative effects on him throughout his life. He feels as though society has done nothing but harm him. Pink does not see any positive effects so he sees no reason for why he should not construct this "wall" in order to distance himself from society. This album portrays the story
of a man who isolates himself and views everyone as a threat, but then realizes that he cannot exclude everybody from his life and almost goes crazy from the whole ordeal. The song "Hey You" starts the second disc of the album and it describes the transformation that Pink undergoes, showing what he feels and sees after he has completed the construction of his "wall." The lyrics describe someone asking if anyone can hear or see him, or maybe it is Pink's conscience talking, trying to get his attention when it says "Hey you, out there in the cold getting lonely, getting old.
Can you feel me?" This shows how Pink has completely shut everyone else out of his life, because the only person he can talk to is himself in self-thought.
The next couple of songs continue this theme of someone or something being lost and lonely seeking help. Then with the songs "Nobody Home" and "Vera" his conscience starts to talk to his mind and pleads with him to change his ways. The song "Bring the Boys Back Home" shows how he weighs his options on whether changing is what he should really be doing, because the song describes how Pink's mother is controlling and overly protective of him, which is one of the reasons why he constructed the wall in the first
place.
Throughout the next few songs Pink starts to show an interest in changing. The song "Comfortably Numb" describes how he can no longer feel anything and that he wants to once again have feeling, but changing will be no easy task. So the next song "The Show Must Go On" shows Pink finally starting to speak and question what has happened to him without the help of his conscience. So the next song "In The Flesh" is him realizing what has happened and what he is doing and how he is treating others.
After he sees what it is he is doing, Pink tries to run as the song says "Run Like Hell", but he cannot escape from his own internal problems.
Finally he realizes that he cannot run and hide from his problems, rather in order for him to truly escape his inner demons he must face his fears and be judged. The lyrics to the song "The Trial" describe how Pink judges himself mentally through a trial as though he were a criminal, and through the lyrics of the song "Crazy, toys in the attic I am crazy, truly gone fishing." he admits to himself that he is going crazy and that because of this separate world that he has created causes him to lose his mind. So he orders himself to come out and destroy the wall he has created in order to renew his old life with his family and friends, also he throws himself at the mercy of his peers and will allow them to judge him. So at the end of the album Pink decides to undo all of his actions and make amends to all of whom he has
hurt.
Throughout this entire album Pink Floyd tells a story of the struggles of his life and how he overcame them. Pink describes his life through music because music is a therapeutic outlet and through this outlet he tells one of his life's struggles, which is a struggle that many people have and through his music he hopes to connect with people on a deeper level so that they can learn from his lyrics and have a deeper appreciation for his music and what he went through in his life.