“Another brick in the wall” Pink Floyd The Wall in each of our lives

pink floyd the wall album

Referring to student age, we often feel warm with beautiful memories; but sometimes there are thorny things lurking somewhere without an answer…

As adults, we will be more tolerant when remembering those memories. But who is sure that, at that time, when we were “wounded and beaten” as our parents used to say, we were – in many ways, expressing the resentment and pain of great ego. in the form of a child. Deep down, we long to be treated as independent, opinionated, and proud entities.

And that story doesn’t just happen to us alone. The famous rock band Pink Floyd dedicated a masterpiece called “Another brick in the wall” in the album Pink Floyd The Wall to tell about Pink’s school days – the main character of “The Wall” was built on childhood experiences of Roger Waters, the main member of Pink Floyd.

pink floyd the wall album
pink floyd the wall album

What does The Wall symbolize in Pink Floyd?

Released in 1982, Pink Floyd The Wall is one of the best albums in rock history and also the album that ushered in the era of the concept album genre – a musical film with a theme throughout with each song playing a role. the role of an episode, setting, or part of an overall story.

And one of the bricks that make up that wall, is a kind of “crammed” education that doesn’t respect who we are. The song “Another brick in the wall” is our voice – children who receive (or should) receive a draconian upbringing, demanding fair treatment, not coercion.

Is Pink Floyd The Wall a true story?

The Wall” takes us through the life of Pink as she journeys from a lonely child who lost her father in World War II to the pinnacle of rock star fame. The main message of “The Wall” through Pink’s story is that each difficulty, every obstacle, or every bitter experience of life can be a brick in the wall that we ourselves – or others. , created to protect yourself. It can be a private space, a hidden corner to stay away from the dangers of life.

What is The Wall’s message?

The lyrics can be interpreted in two different ways because Pink Floyd plays with words when using the double negative – two negatives are synonymous with an affirmation: “We need education” here affirms that education is the right thing and necessary.

In the second direction, if understood according to the English language – especially the students, two negatives still mean the negative: “We don’t need education”, but with the implication that there is no need for the “stuffed” type of education. skull”, harsh and dogmatic.

In the song video, we can see more clearly Pink’s plea, “Don’t make fun of us in class. Please leave us alone”, when the teacher snatched Pink’s poem and read it aloud to the whole class and shared derision.

a scene from The Wall movie
a scene from The Wall movie

There is a truth that is always true, from Asian to Western cultures, that is the excuse of adults when imposing on us – human beings, no matter how small – through the teacher’s preaching:” How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?”.  In British schools, students’ favorite food is pudding, which is brought out only after they have finished their main meal, so the saying means “It takes bitter experience to understand the value of happiness

Through the lyrics and video of the song, we can also see that the harsh upbringing has eliminated all that makes each person individual. When we are all forced into adult discipline and lose all our identity and thinking, are we any different from the robots in an “educational farm”? The image of the school as a farm with conveyor belts bringing students wearing identical masks to the meat grinder is a wake-up call to society, to adults: Don’t turn us into obedient machines. Let us be who we are, with different mindsets and identities.

Although the ending of the video is full of violence when the fury of the “farm” students turns into an “educational subversion” to regain lost ego and find an antidote to damaged pride. love, the general message of the song is still deep humanity. Harshness and imposition in education bring only a sad end to a society in which all people, equally, are lifeless robots. And the other extreme is to completely deny the role of education, which will only bring chaos to society.