"Soma" by The Strokes

"Soma" is a song written by The Strokes in allusion to a drug used to relieve stress or pain in the book Brave New World. The theme of the song is that the majority of people chose to be ignorant if it provides bliss. The song explains soma as something people take when hard times "open their eyes" and they see pain in a "new way". This is saying that when people start to think for themselves and experience revelations while in pain, they tend to disregard it and turn to soma, or some other kind of temporarily distracting thing (such as drugs or alcohol) to relieve themselves of the pain (as well as the newly learned or discovered concept which arises from the pain). This reveals to the audience the general mindset humans have when it comes to pain, according to the speaker's opinion. In the song, the line "tried it once and they liked it, then tried to hide it" is talking about when people chose not to be ignorant for a while, discovered something, and then reverted back to their blissful distractions. Because learning something is exciting, but in the case of Brave New World, forbidden, if someone didn't take soma, and let pain change them and make them individual, it was shameful and something worth hiding. This causes a widespread ignorance in society, which is also present in reality, due to a distraction from natural emotion or thought. One of the last lines of the song says, "and these friends, they keep asking for more". This is speaking about how a lot of people like these distractions from emotion and thought, and will continue to try and distract themselves. The idea (brought up in the lyrics of the song) of a majority of people choosing distractions over pensiveness and asking for more soma represents a common yearning for bliss in society rather than individual thought.

Sentence Purpose Breakdown:
1. Provides introduction to the topic, as well as some background for the subject
2. States the theme of the
3. Introduces a piece of the song
4. Explains the piece introduced
5. Tells the purpose of the piece
6. Introduces a second piece of the song and explains its meaning
7. Explains meaning in context of BNW
8. Explains effect of concept on society (BNW and reality)
9. Introduces a third piece of the song
10. Explanation of meaning
11. Ties ideas back to theme

"Loss of Innocence" by Bottacelli

Innocence is a child-like ignorance to the use or presence of something evil. Something intangible can be lost when it is impossible for one to return to the same mental state that one had when the object or concept was "present". Dark shades tend to hint to something bad and/or evil. One can assume that in the painting, these dark shades represent the revelation of something maleficent to the woman featured in the painting. The colors in this piece seem to get darker as one looks from the left to right of the painting. One can assume then, that towards the left of the painting, more innocence was present in that version of the woman (shown three times throughout) then later on in the right side of the painting. To those who are not innocent, being naked is known to be a bad thing. This loss of innocence, occurring to the woman, is the cause for her trying to cover her bare body with her hair and with the cloth. It is a common belief that innocence is lost when one loses their virginity, which is what seems to be happening in the left of the painting, when the woman is with the man. He is holding onto her, on the left, and trying to blow the cloth off of the middle figure (which is also her).

"Young Life" by Bo Bartlett

The artist is trying to say that with age, comes responsibility. This can be implied by looking at the deer above the head of the couple (being young adults) and the gun in the adult male's hand. It is typical thought that the "breadwinner" of a family is a responsible male who hunts and kills animals to provide for his family. This is the thought that Bo would have grown up around, being an American male born in the 50's. This shows in his painting, where this responsibility seems to weigh down on the older male and his wife or girlfriend (in the form of a dead deer), while the younger male (a child) seems to be apart from this weight, holding a stick (probably for playing) instead of a gun (for killing and providing). The artist is also trying to say that young adults are dependent on each other. This can be implied from the way the couple are standing; the male is only touching the ground with one foot, causing him to have a sort of lean on his girlfriend/wife, and she is in turn grasping onto his torso and leaning on his shoulder. The artist is also trying to show that responsibility is just as inescapable as age. As one can observe, the older male looks somewhat bound to the earth through the colors of the ground, his shoes, his pants, jacket, and even through the deer which is lying above him. This binding is less present in the younger boy, but still holds a presence in his shoes and the stick he is carrying  These connected colors represent the binding of human beings, possibly particularly males, to inevitable responsibility for a future or present family.

"Blackbird" by The Beatles

The "blackbird" may be symbolic for certain groups/individuals in the society of the time that had previously held back by social standards restrictions. When the song says, "blackbird fly" it could mean that the suppressed peoples should speak out and take to new opportunities, and that "flying" would heighten their quality of life ("fly" has a positive connotation and is associated with freedom). The phrase "light of the dark black night" is symbolizing the promise of changing times. Because "light" has a positive connotation, usually meaning an opportunity, it implies that the "dark black night" (meaning the unknown of the changing times) may hold something good for the "blackbird" or suppressed peoples. All of these symbols come together to create the single effect of hope to those individuals waiting for social change.

2+2=5 by Radiohead

The subject of the song is conformity and reactions to conformity. The tone at first is defiant of the conformist society, using words like "forever" and "stay" to express a firm resistance from the subject, but as the song comes to an end, the tone becomes uncertain using words like "maybe" over and over to express the faltering of firmness as the speaker begins to conform. The theme of the piece is "conformity is persistent and eventually inevitable".