Saturday, April 28, 2012



This is a song that when I first heard I got hooked on.  It is silly, simply, and maybe not the deepest, best, narrative artifact, but there is a clear story.  Through that simplicity, it struck a fun, strange chord in me. It has been fun to analysis this and defines the song a little better in my mind.  This has helped me understand why it struck me at that time in my life. 

This narrative is set at the beginning of a journey.  The circumstances are not clearly defined.  The type of journey is not specifically important to the narrative.  The video implies an actual journey, though to me the lyrics speak of a metaphorical journey.  Regardless of the type, the fact that is it a journey makes the narrator a vagabond. This is important to the story.  The narrator lack of "home" makes him susceptible to change, advice and growth.  The Narrator is also the main character of the story.  As the story progresses, we meet two other men.   The first of these men is 2 feet tall. While the story it's self does not specify a specific temporal order or relationship, it is interpreted to have happened in the order presented.  The man is happy, self actualized and comfortable with whom he is, despite what the world may say about his statue.  As our narrator continues on his journey he meets a man on the opposite side of the spectrum in every way.  The man is 12 feet tall, seems to be of great esteem among the world and yet has dreaded the same words of wisdom the prior man had treasured and lived by.   

In the end of the song the narrator uses the same words of wisdom to reassure himself that who he is good enough. This would be the causal effect of the story, seeing the example of the two men help him be who he wants to be.  Not by becoming someone in the sight of the world, or mind of others, but by being content with himself as a roughly 6 foot tall individual. 

The audience would be those who may not feel good about themselves, or feel they have to meet some culturally driven standard.   With that in mind the theme is one of self actualization.  The purpose of the story would be to impart the advice to the audience. 












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