We
have an impression of rituality in our lives.
From this adherence to societal
conventions, we slowly become paralyzed, bringing an individual to a stop or
prevent it from functioning effectively— soulless and mute.
In "Going Home," by Leonard Cohen, the
overall structure of the poem is disjointed and there is incessant repetition
like a song. The chorus consists of the lines:
This portrays the remorseful fact of life, in which we degenerate ourselves in order to conform to culture. We live in a suit and live lives measured in coffee spoons. We compel ourselves to be disillusioned with what the “man” believes is correct and we despairingly obey without question.
“I love to speak with Leonard,
He’s a sportsman and a shepherd,
He’s a lazy bastard, Living in a suit.”
This portrays the remorseful fact of life, in which we degenerate ourselves in order to conform to culture. We live in a suit and live lives measured in coffee spoons. We compel ourselves to be disillusioned with what the “man” believes is correct and we despairingly obey without question.
"He will never have the freedom, To refuse,
He will speak these words of wisdom,
Like a sage, a man of vision,
Though he knows he’s really nothing…
That he only has permission to do my instant bidding.”
This willingness to submit
demonstrates how hollow and stuffed we really are. We are but superficial
beings. However, “Going home, Sometime tomorrow, To where
it’s better, Than before.” From this phrase “going home,” the speakers knows that he
will one day be freed somehow from this condition, as implied in the lines in
which he claims that he will be able to "go home" to a more peaceful
place, and this, perhaps, contributes to the sense of comfort that, according
to my interpretation, the speaker feels.
We are unthinking inhabitants of a
waste land. We construct ourselves a desolate world. The hollow men
represent all humankind with a tragic existence—to comply.
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