Not Afraid by Eminem remind me of “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid because she was being told in the story how to live her life according to her “role” and by those who were in power, her mother. In the story, Jamaica’s mother looks down upon her in a way because in the end she doesn’t believe she will amount to anything besides a “slut.” She did not agree with the way of life that was thrust upon her so she moved to America to take a stand and create her own self and future. She then uses her writing of “Girl” to show others that they don’t have to live a certain way just because society deems it so. I thought of this story when I heard the song Afraid by Eminem because he raps about how he took a stand to make himself a better life. This was shown through the lyrics “I'm not afraid, to take a stand.. and I just can't keep living this way, so starting today, i'm breaking out of this cage, i'm standing up,...i've had enough, now I'm so fed up,Time to put my life back together right now.” In the lyrics “all those who look down on me I'm tearing down your balcony” He doesn’t let those who looked down upon him keep him down, he persevered and took control of his life again by getting clean. The typical “role” for a rapper is to drink and do drugs to make music and he did not want that life style anymore and decided to get clean. Eminem also uses his song to show others that there is a different way of living. Even though the situations between the two are vastly different, they both escape the control of something to be able to live how they wish to live.
Link to song lyrics : http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/eminem/notafraid.html
Heather, I absolutely love this song by Eminem and I do see how "Girl" and "Not Afraid", although very much different, are similar in some ways also. In my opinion, the commentary by Jamaica Kincaid "On Girl" shows more similarities to "Not Afraid" than the actual short story itself. The commentary discusses how she actually ended up not taking all of her mother's advice but how she actually took her own route in life and did things how she felt would be best for her to do them as a woman in society. The lyrics in "Not Afraid" are, as you said, discussing how Eminem wanted to take a stand and not be afraid to rise above everything and be him or at least a better version of himself. This song related to the commentary "On Girl" because just like you said she was also not afraid to be herself in society regardless of what she felt people might view her as. Great job here!
ReplyDeleteHeather, your analogy is very different. Most of our classmates, including me, focused on Girl mostly from the mother's perspective. I admire the fact that you tied in the author's critique on the story. In turn, you were able to see that the author disregarded her mother's "rules" on how to survive when she changed her environment. Overall, I do agree that Eminem's Afraid and Girl share a lot in common. I applaud the fact that you used a different source of media, a song. In addition, both material are hard to make comparisons to, if one is looking on the surface. You dug deeper and uncovered similar themes in both pieces.
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