Analysis Of J. Cole's She Knows

In J.Coles “She Knows” he uses a juvenile young man to demonstrate the life of a average suburban family and the struggles they go through. By looking at the the two scenes spoken about in this essay, we can see what exactly J.Cole means in his title “She Knows”, which most viewers don’t see; this is important because J.Cole changes the meaning of “She Knows” through the entire music video. The first important scene starts with the young man being dropped off by his mother and father on his way to school. This scene is significant because previously before the young man left the house he stole money from his parents and the young mans mother gazes at him in the car as if she knew what exactly he had done. The second important scene starts with …show more content…
Starting with the scene where the young man is dropped off by his mother. The scene takes roughly two to three seconds, all of which the mother is scolding the young man. The fact that she is staring at him leads the viewers to believe that she knows something is up, and conveniently the young man previously that day stole money out of his parents dresser. This scene is a typical point of view shot, allowing the viewer to fully understand what the mother is thinking as she scolds her son. In this scene the young man is the dominant figure in both the foreground and mid ground because the focus is on him, but the image has a background of the backseat of the car where the young man is sitting. To add to the point of view shot, J.Cole clothes the young man in bright colors to make sure that he is the center focus, contrasting against the bland colored backseat of the car. By doing this it allows the viewer to look and see nothing else but a guilty looking young …show more content…
The scene starts with the young man coming home after a risky day of skipping school only to find his mother having an affair with a mysterious man. In this scene the young man is once again the dominant figure in the foreground. But unlike that in the previous scene the young man in no longer in either the mid ground or background. This time the mother is in the mid ground and the mysterious man is in the background. The colors used for each individual also work with their placement in the scene, the young man and mother are wearing vibrant bright colors where as the mysterious man is wearing dark clothes and his face is blocked out. This is so that first off the viewers attention is drawn the the young man and the mother, and second the mysterious man in the background. This format allows the viewer to put the pieces of the puzzle together in order to declare that what was going on was in fact an affair. To further in the development of the scene the shot used here is an establishing shot, because it develops the setting, and once where the shot was POV and the viewer could really only interpret the mother 's thoughts, as a spectator in this scene the viewer can interpret both thoughts of the young man and the mother. This allows for the viewer to understand that both parties in the scene are in shock of what just happened, the young man was unaware before he walked in the house