Best Imitation Of Myself Analysis

It is often said that wearing a mask to hide your true feelings is unhealthy and should never be done. However, there are times where people feel it is necessary to do so. They do this either to benefit themselves or others and can often lead to a feeling of sadness and anger for the person who is hiding their feelings. This is illustrated well in the song “Best Imitation of Myself” by the band Ben Folds Five, which is about a guy who acts a certain way and hides his true feelings and personality to be with a girl. This song relates to myself as I too used to hide my feelings and was forced to act a certain way, this led me to doubt the reasoning behind the way I acted and eventually led me to rejecting the mask I had built much like Folds …show more content…
This thought process is also reflected in song, with Folds saying, “Maybe I'm thinking myself in a hole / Wondering, who I am when I ought to know / Straighten up now time to go / Fool somebody else, fool somebody else.” In the lyrics you can hear him doubting himself on why he is doing what he is doing. He is doubting why he needs to act differently instead of acting naturally. Yet, despite this at the end of the quote he makes it clear that he is not ready to act on these thoughts when he says, “Straighten up now time to go / Fool somebody else, fool somebody else.” I was in a similar state of mind around my 8th grade year of middle school. It was around this time that I was starting to doubt the need for the public farce i put on. I was becoming frustrated with having to curb my sarcasm and having to act like I didn’t want to speak. Yet I knew if I suddenly switched personalities one day people would become confused and it would not end well, so I bided my time. I looked for the right opportunity to reveal myself. In “Best Imitation of Myself” as the song goes on the frustration of Ben Folds becomes more and more clear. He does not like having to lie about his personality just to be with a