So ya

Thought ya

Might like to

Go to the show?

The beginning words of The Wall’s Title track “In the Flesh?” propose us with this question. The show referenced is not only a musical tour but also life itself. The show that we play apart in.

An analysis of the wall has been done by thousands of times by people from scholars to children but today, I do not wish to direct the album. I wish to explore how Cognitive Dissonance plays into the music, the lyrics, and the lives of you and I.

Part 1 – Childhood

The title character of this album is named Pink. A boy born in England, his father had died in the Second World War and he has an extremely controlling and protective mother. As he goes through his early life he has ambitions to become a rock star. He has already as a young boy experienced many traumas, namely the loss of his father. Roger Waters, a member and later the leader of Pink Floyd had this experience himself. His Father, Eric Fletcher Waters (pictured) died in the battle of Anzio c.1943. Eric had been a pacifist and contentious objector, as well as a member of the Communist Party. He eventually renounced his pacifism and joined the territorial army being assigned to the 8th Fusiliers.

(Left – Eric Fletcher Waters, John Waters, Mary Waters and infant Roger Waters – Right)

The death of his father was the first of many metaphorical “Bricks” in his wall. These bricks are pieces of life and trauma that cause his exclusion from the world. As Pink grows, he is enrolled into school and is truly introduced to the harshness of the world around him. School teachers try to form him into a cookie cutter member of society, making him “another brick in the wall.” The wall mentioned here is different from the wall referenced earlier. It is a wall of society. All members (Bricks) are the same and play their part in holding up this wall. Pink does not want to be a normal part of this wall. As mentioned before. Pink wants to be a rock star.

Pink’s mother is extremely protective over him. As she has lost her husband and is now raising him on her own. She attempts to keep him from the world around him. “of course Mama’s gonna help build the wall,” is a line in Mother. Mother plays a very large part in building this wall and sets the scene for later events in the album. Mother makes sure to not let Pink have any women in his life who may breech this wall and taint his ideas saying “mama won’t let anybody dirty get in, mama’s gonna wait up until you get in, mama will always find out where you’ve been.” Mother does not want to allow for her son to wander like her husband had. When he wandered too far, he faced an extremely untimely demise.

The song “Goodbye Blue Sky,” is one of the most powerful on the album as it speaks on Pink’s departure from home to achieve his goal of becoming a musician. He leaves home in search of this bidding goodbye to the blue skies he is used to. The song leads into “Empty Spaces,” a song where Pink addresses his mother, asking what he will do to fill the parts of his wall that are not yet completed, and how he can finish building it. Empty spaces leads into “Young Lust,” where Pink addresses his new rockstar lifestyle. Searching for “a dirty woman” as well as a place in a new town and life he has found himself in. This is the beginning of Pink’s descent into madness, depression, and eventually rebirth.

Part 2 – The Turn

Pink has completed his goal, he has become a successful musician but suspects that his wife is having an affair. In the song titled “One of my turns” Pink invites a fan to the hotel room where he is staying while on tour. While she is in the room with him, he snaps. Chasing her out of the room and realizing that this is not what he wants. This is where Cognitive Dissonance comes into play.

Pink is at a point where he throws away his career and begins isolation, realizing that this goal he has had for so long, this rockstar lifestyle is not what he truly wants. In Aesop’s fable “The Fox and the Grapes,” the fox spends times attempting to reach grapes that are too high for him only to turn away when he decides that he does not want them because they are sour. Pink is unlike the fox in the fact that he has had the grapes however he now decides after having eaten them for so long that they are too sour to continue to stomach. This is cognitive dissonance, a sudden turn of emotion or attitude towards an object or idea.

(an illustration of “The fox and the Grapes”)

“Don’t leave me now” is the next track on the album and it involves Pink in an argument with his adulterous wife. Pink alternates between lashing out on her and then begging her to return to him. She does not.

The final two songs on this side of the album are “Another Brick in the Wall Part 3” and “Goodbye Cruel World” both go into Pink sealing of his wall, locking himself in his hotel room, and bidding goodbye to the rest of the world around him.

Part 3 – A New Goal

The third side of this four side album begins with a song titled “Hey You” in which Pink begins to analyze his life choices so far. Calling out for people beyond his wall, leaving them advice saying “don’t give in without a fight.” However, Pink also begins to question if what he has done so far is the right thing. He begins to wonder if locking himself away is the way to go. All of this is too little, too late. This leads into “Is there anybody out there?” the start of Pink’s second wave of dissonance. Now that he has sealed himself away, he is realizing the dire consequences in which it has and starts to wonder what else there is. He has turned against himself once before and is preparing to do it again.

“Nobody Home” is an extremely emotional track on this album. Pink realizes that there is nothing he can do now, his wife and the world he knew have evaded him, as he has evaded them. He cannot get out and instead begins to analyze all the things in his hotel room like the “thirteen channels of shit on the TV to choose from.” Just as he did before, Pink is facing one of his turns, another descent into madness that will continue for the rest of the album.

Following a few songs later comes “Comfortably Numb” Pink is broken out of his drug induced hotel isolation so that he may perform another show as the musician he dreamed to be. It appears in this song that he is speaking to a doctor. The doctor asks, “hello, is there anybody in there? just nod if you can hear me, is there anyone home?” Pink realizes just how damaging he is to himself, beginning to describe how forgone the people and world around him feel. Speaking on sickness he experienced as a child, and telling them that the drugs he is using allow him to, “become comfortably numb.” The doctor speaking to Pink then injects him with a needle, supposedly to clear out his system. Following comfortably numb.

(An image of both Young and Old pink split by the television)

A few songs later is “Stop,” where Pink again decides that his rockstar career and metal isolation is not truly what he wants.

Part 4 – Rebirth

“The Trial,” is a form of imagination, most likely induced by Pink’s drugs where he places himself on trial. A worm acts a the judge and the bricks in his wall present a case against him where they argue why this wall he built should be torn down, and why he should be reunited with the world he once knew. Characters like The Schoolmaster, Mother, and His Wife present cases against him. Mother requests to just take Pink home. Proving her protective nature. Pink repeats the phrase “Crazy, toys in the attic I am crazy,” or phrases similar to it. remembering his life as a child and a simpler time. The Judge decides unanimously that Pink should no longer be isolated from the world. The worm however, is Pink’s subconscious banishing him from this isolation. The song ends with the phrase “Tear down the wall!” being related multiple times before a massive explosion plays.

The song “Outside the Wall” begins with the same instrumental that “In the Flesh?” did at the very beginning of the album. Signifying the rebirth and resurrection of a simpler, softer Pink. The song states, “All alone or in twos / The ones who really love you / Walk up and down, outside the wall.” Through this we know that all Pink had to do to be reunited with the world was step out of his isolation. He would have found comfort and support. But instead, he suffered until he snapped and realized this is not what he wanted. Until Cognitive Dissonance stepped in.

Epilogue – How Does This Apply Outside the Album?

Pink is an extreme situation of cognitive dissonance. His snaps are not only violent but also drug filled and painful. However, as we come into a unified and changing age, we see more and more people with goals that they do not fully understand. With young men, as I have said before, this is the goal of becoming someone else. They too will experience some form of snap one day, one that is emotionally and perhaps even physically painful. This will be because of the mental disturbance known as “Cognitive Dissonance.” Just as the fox, and Pink did, they will realize that their goals and ambitions are not what they truly want. Or perhaps, the lives they lead are the very things they want to change. And just as Pink and the Fox did, they will find a way to make this change.

(A small child picking up the pieces of Pink’s collapsed wall)