Ms. Jones taught me english, but I think I just shot her son
'Cause he owed me money, with a bullet in the chest you cannot run.
Now he's bleeding in a vacant lot
the one in the summer where we use to smoke pot
I guess I didnt mean it
But man you should have seen it
His flesh explode.
The first stanza is a statement on the progression of modern day children and their transition into teenagers and then into adulthood from influences from common misperseptions of what adults are and do and their desensitization of violence. The words used "Ms. Jones taught me english" reminds the listener of a time when you were in the elementary years. The author is refering to a back in the day scenario because he says "Ms. Jones" and not "Mrs. Jones." Which most women are married before they have children and her child is the one whom the author shot.
The issue addressed is how children change and become influenced by the things they see and think they are supposed to do. And the kids have misperceptions of what adulthood is like or what is the "cool" thing to do to prove your a grown up now. Such as smoking pot in a parking lot or taking issues into your own hands by solving your own problems. The problem is that the author dealt with it in a socially inacceptable way, which is shooting the other person.
The author participates in an act of anti-social behavior. This is due to the desensitization of him at a younger age, which i interpret to be a media influence. He feels nothing for what he had just done because he says "I guess I didnt mean it. But man, you should have seen it, his flesh explode" as if he doesnt even care about what he had done and even finds the situation fascinating and something to be shared with others by saying "you should have seen it." And the sentence after that saying "his flesh explode" would be a gruesome site, but apparantly to him it is not.
The words "...just shot her son." shows there is a more personal link between the author and the people he refers to. It isnt just some random stranger that owes him money, its his teacher's kid. It catches you off guard right away at the direct violence just thrown in right in the first sentence of the song.
redue of 1st verse translation
15 years ago
4 comments:
I don't know if you really presented enough of an argument for me to buy that his actions were caused by desensitization caused by the media.
I am really interested in the connection you start to make between anti-social behavior (although I'd argue that killing a kid goes beyond 'anti-social') and how the narrator views the "death explosion" as cool. Is "being desensitized" just another form of (mis)socialization?
I know this song and I know it talks about different scenarios involving drugs. Maybe you should take those into consideration, along with the violence surrounding them.
In your first post how do you know the Mrs. Jones english teacher takes place in elementary school and not highschool? It could be a teacher he has now whose son he shot. Do u think he may even have had a relationship with the teacher and son beyond school?
ALSO Ms. Jones could be married. "Ms" doesn't carry any specific marital connotation, only gender. If anything, "Ms." indicates that the woman in question was born after 1960 (as women older than that then not to use Ms.) And hints at it not being in the south -- there is a social construct in the south which makes any woman's first name into "Miss Jane" "Miss Ashley" "Miss Joyce" etc, without regard to her marital status.
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