Pink's Song The Speaker example essay topic

"Family Portrait" by Pink and "I'm okay" by Christina Aguilera express being hurt by family. The idea is to understand why these two songs are so much alike yet they are different. The lyrics are very emotional because the artists describe the hurt inflicted on them by family. The songs are belted out in such a powerful manner that the audience can only imagine what really went on. While Christina depends on her mother to survive, Pink believes her father can make things well again. Each artist uses their lyrics to explain the hurt they feel even though they are two different, but slightly similar kinds of pain.

In the song "Family Portrait" Pink sings about herself as a child torn apart by the possibility of her parents divorce. The child is hurt by this and does not want her parents to split up". Can we work it out? Can we be a family?

Daddy please don't leave". She wants her parents to work through the problems. It is understandable that the child wants her family to stay together. Certain lyrics in the song lead the listener to consider that the speaker thinks she and her mother are the reason her parents fight.

"Mom will be nicer, I'll be so much better I'll do everything right". All children dream of having the perfect family and every young girl dreams of having her father around Pink believes that if her father stays everything will be okay. It is easy to assume that the pain of divorce is difficult, but abuse is a different kind of pain. In Christina Aguilera's song "I'm Okay" the speaker sings about a pain of another kind: abuse.

"The song is about the abuse her father inflicted on her as a child and her mother. The lyrics are full of sorrow as she explains horrific things she witnessed as a child... " Hurt me to see the pain across my mothers face, every time my father's fist would put her in her place". Unlike Pink's song, she sees her father as the reason for the pain. She wants him to know that her mother was her backbone, the person that pulled her through the pain.

"Strength is my mother for all the love she gave I'm okay". In the first verse of each song both artists sing in detail of not wanting to go home. In their eyes they see home as a battlefield where they are innocent spectators, watching their parents fight. They are also the ones who suffer in the long run. In Pink's song the speaker talks about the love she " ll never have.

"Never know in what love could be". In Christina's song the speaker talks about the difficulty to allow someone to be close to her. It is apparent that ever since these incidents, these artists are hesitant about who they open their hearts to. They are afraid to let anyone near. "Mama please stop crying I can't stand the sound" (Pink). "The echoes of a broken child screaming "please no more" (Christina Aguilera).

These lyrics are filled with emotions that are all too familiar to those that have been in a similar situation. The differences in the songs are obvious. The lyrics are diverse, but the universal meaning is identical: Images fade, but the pain remains the same..