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Analyzing "Guaranteed" with my students today...interested in your opinions
walkunafraid
Posts: 2,557
For the last few weeks my 11th grade students have been reading/analyzing/discussing the philosophies behind Romanticism and Transcendentalism. Since Into the Wild reflects so many of these ideas, I have introduced them to the background of the book/film (sadly, none of my students have read it or seen it), and we have discussed how it ties in to transcendentalism.
So, I decided that today I would bring in "Guaranteed" from the ITW soundtrack to listen to and analyze. More than any other song on the album, it reflects the romantic/transcendentalist spirit that the students are finally getting their heads around.
In anticipation of our discussion, there are a couple of lines from the song that stood out to me. I'm very interested to hear what my students make of them, but I'm also interested to hear what you all think. They are:
1. "Circles they grow and they swallow people whole": What are the 'circles' that he mentions? In what way do they 'swallow' people?
2. "If ever there was someone to keep me at home / It would be you": Who is 'you' in this line? Also, what 'home' is he referring to?
So, I decided that today I would bring in "Guaranteed" from the ITW soundtrack to listen to and analyze. More than any other song on the album, it reflects the romantic/transcendentalist spirit that the students are finally getting their heads around.
In anticipation of our discussion, there are a couple of lines from the song that stood out to me. I'm very interested to hear what my students make of them, but I'm also interested to hear what you all think. They are:
1. "Circles they grow and they swallow people whole": What are the 'circles' that he mentions? In what way do they 'swallow' people?
2. "If ever there was someone to keep me at home / It would be you": Who is 'you' in this line? Also, what 'home' is he referring to?
Everything has chains...Absolutely nothing's changed. - PJ
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” - Albert Camus
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” - Albert Camus
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1. "Circles they grow and they swallow people whole": What are the 'circles' that he mentions? In what way do they 'swallow' people?
From seeing the film I think the circles refers to groups or niches. Like everyone has a crowd they hang out with or have a certain "group" that they associate themselves with. (when I was in high school, it was head bangers, jocks, cheerleaders ect).
In the film Chris would always meet people, and talk with them, but yet he never wanted to associate himself with anybody, just because it appeared to me that he found that aspect of society to be boring and if you stay in one place, with one group too long, it would wear you down.
"If ever there was someone to keep me at home / It would be you": Who is 'you' in this line? Also, what 'home' is he referring to?
I think "you" is Chris's parents. He isolated himself from everyone but yet his parents made every attempt to try and find him, but Chris didn't want to be found. I think home means his parents house and having a normal life. Chris's parents didn't understand his quest for adventure and freedom and he knew they wouldn't. He knew it would sound strange to them, just like it does to the majority of us who saw the film (well at least me).
__________________
Strength and courage overrides
EV Solo: 7/11/11 11/12/12 11/13/12
the "you" is chris' sister. ed mentioned in an interview that he wrote that line for her. don't know where i read that, sorry.
for me the "circles" represent things in life that you kind of fall into (they "swallow" you), and can't come out. they can be groups of people, like red_mos said, but i'm more thinking of circumstances that lead to one another. you go to school, then you have to get yourself a job, days go by, life goes on, and you may have certain wishes or dreams about your future or life, but you can't really step out of your routine and go for a try. and a big factor is because society tells you kind of how you have to live your life.
hope this makes sense. sorry for my english.
Munich, Germany 2007
found it: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/feature/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003663615
Interviewer: Basically, Sean said the only people he'd listen to in this regard are Chris' parents and sister.
Ed: I defer to them as well. I thought about them a lot. There's a line in "Guaranteed" that says, "Don't come closer or I'll have to go/Owning me like gravity are places that pull/If ever there was someone to keep me at home/It would be you." That line is for [McCandless' sister, Carine].
Munich, Germany 2007
I didn't know this - very cool! Thanks for the info!
Pssh...and I thought "you" was referring to nature...
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” - Albert Camus
Circles they grow and swallow people whole: to me it means that in everyone's life there will be a time when something totally overwhelms you.....school, job, relationship, family, etc. and sometimes the situation becomes so bad, it can basically "swallow people whole"
"if ever there was someone to keep me at home...." in reference to the first quote, so when you are so overwhelmed and feel like giving up , there is always one person, or thing you can rely on. just because you are overwhelmed don't give up, someone or something is there for you. basically there is a solution to your problem
i hope this makes sense
walkunafraid, you are a great teacher
A circular pit would form in the sand before the monsters in the movie "Dune" would attack things.
2. "If ever there was someone to keep me at home / It would be you": Who is 'you' in this line? Also, what 'home' is he referring to?
one word: Diarrhea. You get that and you're afraid to leave home.
Follow the angled light.
Follow the strangest tribe.
anyway ...
Circles here, as someone said, are like a group or a clique or social group -- your "circle of friends." They swallow people whole by becoming big and complicated and intertwined, to the point that your attentions and affections become diluted. You can't see the forest for the trees, and you can't give the proper attention to the ones you are supposed to love the most.
That relates directly to the next line ... "Half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know.
Never saw the movie, so I'm not gonna give a specific answer. To me, "you" is just THAT person. The one person who, in a different lifetime, would make all the bullshit of being at home worthwhile.
To me, this one of the more gut-wrenching lines of the whole song. He's telling this person -- whoever it is -- that I love you the most, you are the person I could most see myself settling down with ... but, I'm not. I can't. I won't. To me, the whole song is about the need to be alone ... and the 'you' here is the one who comes closest to nullifying that need. But, in the end, falls short.
It's a heartbreaking line, both for the narrator -- who obviously wishes 'you' were someone capable of easing his soul and keeping him at home -- and for the object of the narrator's affection -- who now is being abandoned.
for the least they could possibly do