Song Analysis of "Society"

For a recent English paper we each chose to analyze a song from the Into the Wild soundtrack. I chose "Society." If you are interested take a look! :D

Many of the most famous or popular books in our culture have been turned into movies. The Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series are two good examples of this. The book, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, is based upon the real-life adventures of Chris McCandless, also known under the pseudonym of Alexander Supertramp, a 23 year old man from a “well-to-do family” who walked alone into the wilderness of Alaska. After four months, in August 1992, he was found dead in an old Fairbanks bus. In 2007, eleven years after Krakauer first published his book, a major motion picture arrived in theaters. But before the movie was seen by the public, American singer-songwriter Eddie Vedder, perhaps most famous for being the lead singer of the popular alternative rock band Pearl Jam, was given the task of creating a soundtrack for the Into the Wild movie. While he covered some of the songs included in the soundtrack, he created the majority of them. One of the songs which strikes a resonating chord with me is “Society.” “Society” was originally written by John Hannan but was covered by Vedder in the soundtrack. Vedder seems to use “Society” as a way to convey what he thinks McCandless was thinking during the period of his life covered in Into the Wild. “Society” helps convey the intense feelings of McCandless through both the powerful, yet simple words and the almost haunting melody. Depending upon where you apply the song, it can have very different meanings. For instance, if you applied a portion of “Society” to only the beginning of story, you would get a much different analysis than if you applied it to McCandless’ dying days.

Chris McCandless finds the fact that we as human beings accept the presence of greed in society a “mystery to me.” He sounds very condescending towards society, referencing the general society almost like greedy machines who take and take and never stop and appreciate what they have. He seems to set himself apart from the rest of society in these words by speaking to instead of with. This recurring pattern of separation and condescension continues on with “society, you’re a crazy breed.” Once again McCandless has removed himself from the main stream group and started viewing society as a separate entity from himself, hence the use of the word “breed.” Chris was fed up with all of the frivolous distractions that the unavoidable rat race of life presented. He saw that society was unable to escape the rat race of life. The rat race concept seems to stem from the horrible misconception that to be happy in life we need to collect material objects along with earning atrocious amounts of money. People’s lives become consumed with these goals and they are unable to stop, think, and see if they are genuinely happy. If you are able to pause and assess a situation, then most of the time you will find that you are not doing what you really love and all of your thoughts and beliefs get muddled and lost in the shuffle. The word “bleed” can be thought of as symbolic of painful, bad and negative. At this point you have crossed the line of confusion and don’t know what you want at all. Chris wanted no part in this life and only wanted raw emotions and actions. Getting away from all the madness was Chris’s solution.

On the flipside, like almost everything in life, there’s always an exception to the rule. There are always the people who are the outsiders or the ones who have vastly different ideas. Chris valued those people who did more thinking about life. He appreciated those who thought that “less is more.” Chris considered himself one of the few that did think that less is more. He was drawn to the romantic “less is more” anti-materialism lifestyle, and he resented the fact that he was from the “more is more” way of life. This way of life could have been what Chris’ childhood was like, and he loathed being reminded of it. He also seems like he had hard feelings towards his parents because they had given him everything that he needed/wanted. Chris wanted to experience this new way of life, which sounded like it was full of independence. The problem with being anti-materialistic is that most of mainstream society doesn’t understand that you can be satisfied and happy with fewer things. Most people think that when you remove things from your life you begin to sink down, but Chris is saying that by removing things you can actually rise up. If you listen closely to the guitar solo in the middle of the song, right before the verses about rising and falling, the note ascends, peaks, and then begins to fall again. In addition, within this portion, after he says that “every point you make your level drops… you can’t do that” with a falling note. In addition, when I hear the solo I imagine mountains and an empty feeling of solitude and silence.

            “I hope you’re not lonely without me” is such a powerful statement. This phrase could apply to many situations in life. It works for Chris’ situation when he left society and headed out into the Alaskan wilderness, but it also applies at the very end of his life when he is dying alone in Fairbanks bus 142. When Chris headed off into the Alaskan wilderness it seems as though he was sure that he wanted to get away from the hurricane of life. This phrase could be said almost sarcastically by him. In this sense he is saying that he’s leaving and society, or closer to home, his parents, can’t do or say a thing to change his decision. Another point that I think is very important to mention is in the last few postcards that Chris sent out to his new friends Wayne Westerberg and Jan Burrs.

            “If this adventure proves fatal and you don’t hear from me again, I want you to know you’re a great man. I now walk into the wild.”        - Postcard received by Wayne Westerberg

Earlier in the postcard Chris wrote “this is the last you shall hear from me.” It is clear from this note that Chris didn’t take walking “into the wild” lightly. He understood that danger was omnipresent, but he also makes sure to include an “if” in this statement. This leaves room for success. However, at the beginning of the postcard Chris puts himself into the past tense by saying “this is the last you shall hear from me Wayne.” This seems to have a very negative and final intonation. Perhaps Chris thought that if he went out by himself, he was going to live life alone, but he could have also sensed that if he left he was going to die. “I hope you’re not lonely without me” now comes across as a morbid statement.

Fast forward towards the end of Chris’ life when he was lonely and knew he was dying. He wished that he could go slip back into society. In the end it seemed he decided that he wanted to be part of society, just not right smack in the middle of it, but now he is stuck, in the wilderness of Alaska within his bus. The only thing he had left to do was turn towards society and appeal for help. The problem was that he realized too late that what he really desired was to exist amongst the people and have a presence, but simultaneously wanted to be able to fade away when he wanted. In his dying days Chris seemed regretful that he wasn’t back in society. Hence the following to phrases:

“HAPPINESS IS ONLY REALWHEN SHARED”

However, in his dying days, Chris seems to have come to the conclusion that he has lived out his dreams, and seems to accept the fact that he is going to perish. This statement below makes it appear as though he is content with leaving and being away form society.

“I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL”

Vedder uses a lot a repetition in this song. Chris’ beliefs about how society is stuck in a rut of greed and materialism meshes nicely with this repetitive quality. In this song the word “you” and “you’re” combined is used 29 times! Often the “you’s” come one right after another such as “when you think more than you want.” There are a lot of aspirants such as “there’s those thinking more or less less is more.” The presence of aspirants makes the whole song flow, almost like that of a river or that of a circle turning around and around. Circles bring me back to the vicious cycle of mainstream society wanting more and more and the nine-to-five day. Everything seems to be connected. In addition, the musical accompaniment is made up of only four chords that are repeated twice; hence more repetition.

Have you ever listened to a song and thought “Wow! This is how I think! This songwriter hit the nail on the head!”? I believe that this song applies to many people not just Chris McCandless. A good example of this is me. I have similar thoughts and ideas on this same subject, and I don’t hesitate for a second when I say that there are plenty of other people who have the same belief. From listening to the first few seconds of the song, you, the listener, realize that it is from the perspective of McCandless talking to society at large. The song, however, seems to portray society as a single person, an individual human being that is being spoken to from Chris McCandless’ point of view. Through song, Eddie Vedder, gives us, the listeners, an opportunity to interpret McCandless’ emotions on a deeper level. While “Society” helps us ponder what Chris was feeling and thinking, we will never really know his true opinions of our baffling breed.