“The Sound of Silence" (Paul Simon, 1964）and "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" (Samuel Ervin Beam, 2008) are picturesque songs with meaningful social commentary. Their poetic lyrics reveal an invisible depression and critical content about the society. The two songs both convey a faint frustration against authors' ideal world, but the original cause of such emotion is different. In "the Sound of Silence", the author fell in deep depression because of the isolation and apathy among people lack of communication and thoughts. By contrary, in another song, author's negative mood is caused by the loss of individual innocence and the dissolution of American dream. And the degree of the depression in the latter is higher than the former, because
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For the first song, the theme is to criticize man's isolation and inability to communicate with others, and the hollow of inside thoughts. The author finds the extent of communication only reaches its most superficial and "commercial" level. He sees a inevitable future of over-commercialization and materialism, which is symbolized by "the neon God". People are fanatical about celebrity, wealth, and possessions. Inevitably, A shallow, culturally empty society will crushes a the beautiful, simple world. " the neon God split the night" shows the advanced Internet and over-spread social media engage the space for people to think and deprive the freedom for them to communicate with each other sincerely and mutually. People are in silence. They neither do not reach into the bottom of their heart nor defend their own opinion , so the cancer of hollow thoughts becomes more and more terrible. And eventually, "the sign flashed out its warning." which means the cracks in this new world of the neon God. However, the second song shows individual's loss of idealism, and the degradation of the mythical "American" dream. In "Flightless Bird", The first verse sets our protagonist as an innocent child "quick, wet, diving too deep" - newly born, baptized, full of enthusiasm, carefree. Audience can get a glimpse of what's to come through the "blind" eyes of the adult world. The "cops" his own adulthood crash the party and he's forced to grow up and give up his
For the first song, the theme is to criticize man's isolation and inability to communicate with others, and the hollow of inside thoughts. The author finds the extent of communication only reaches its most superficial and "commercial" level. He sees a inevitable future of over-commercialization and materialism, which is symbolized by "the neon God". People are fanatical about celebrity, wealth, and possessions. Inevitably, A shallow, culturally empty society will crushes a the beautiful, simple world. " the neon God split the night" shows the advanced Internet and over-spread social media engage the space for people to think and deprive the freedom for them to communicate with each other sincerely and mutually. People are in silence. They neither do not reach into the bottom of their heart nor defend their own opinion , so the cancer of hollow thoughts becomes more and more terrible. And eventually, "the sign flashed out its warning." which means the cracks in this new world of the neon God. However, the second song shows individual's loss of idealism, and the degradation of the mythical "American" dream. In "Flightless Bird", The first verse sets our protagonist as an innocent child "quick, wet, diving too deep" - newly born, baptized, full of enthusiasm, carefree. Audience can get a glimpse of what's to come through the "blind" eyes of the adult world. The "cops" his own adulthood crash the party and he's forced to grow up and give up his