Bruce Springsteen’s 1975 hit song, “Born to Run” is a hopeful anthem for any individual who has felt the desire to escape from the banality of day-to-day life. While the song features a love story between the narrator and a character named “Wendy”, the more overarching message is the longing to leave behind a town that holds few opportunities and take on the unknown in search of a more fulfilling future. In analyzing this song, three major themes can be identified. These can be simply summarized as escapism, love and internal turmoil. While all of these elements overlap and come together under the broad idea of young people wanting to get away from the unpleasant aspects of life, each individual component also speaks to Springsteen’s personal
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Rather than wanting to run away from town and be alone, the narrator is seeking a fulfilling connection with someone that he loves. Springsteen sings, “I want to guard your dreams and visions”, recognizing that the town that the two individuals reside in can crush a person’s dreams. The narrator wants to protect the woman he loves from the harsh realities of a town that “rips the bones from your back” and in order to do this, they must run away together. It is an incredibly romantic and idealistic possibility which emerges in other Springsteen songs, including “Thunder Road”. One particularly interesting section of the song emerges in the following lines: “Just wrap your legs ‘round these velvet rims, And strap your hands ‘cross my engines”. Following with the pattern of cars as a symbol for escaping, these lyrics evoke more sexual imagery. Furthermore, the lines, “But I gotta know how it feels, I want to know if love is wild, Babe I want to know if love is real,” conjure up images of a young man who has barely begun to experience what love can feel like. However, he has an interest in Wendy and he wants to know if love is the real and great phenomenon that it has been made out to be. Although the use of a love interest in the song could take away from its intended meaning, the addition of Wendy adds further meaning and shows the listener that the narrator is young and still naive in life, though he is hopeful of what the future
Rather than wanting to run away from town and be alone, the narrator is seeking a fulfilling connection with someone that he loves. Springsteen sings, “I want to guard your dreams and visions”, recognizing that the town that the two individuals reside in can crush a person’s dreams. The narrator wants to protect the woman he loves from the harsh realities of a town that “rips the bones from your back” and in order to do this, they must run away together. It is an incredibly romantic and idealistic possibility which emerges in other Springsteen songs, including “Thunder Road”. One particularly interesting section of the song emerges in the following lines: “Just wrap your legs ‘round these velvet rims, And strap your hands ‘cross my engines”. Following with the pattern of cars as a symbol for escaping, these lyrics evoke more sexual imagery. Furthermore, the lines, “But I gotta know how it feels, I want to know if love is wild, Babe I want to know if love is real,” conjure up images of a young man who has barely begun to experience what love can feel like. However, he has an interest in Wendy and he wants to know if love is the real and great phenomenon that it has been made out to be. Although the use of a love interest in the song could take away from its intended meaning, the addition of Wendy adds further meaning and shows the listener that the narrator is young and still naive in life, though he is hopeful of what the future