Pink Floyd "The Wall" "Another brick in the wall" analysis

“Another brick in the wall” is a song made by Pink Floyd, sung by Roger Waters and David Guilmoure. It was released in the year 1979 and is one of the main songs of the soundtrack of the movie “The wall”. The song is divided in three parts: the first one called “Another brick in the wall part 1” where the main topic is Pinky´s father leg to war. The second part is called “The happiest days of our lives” and the third one “Another brick in the wall part 2” where the main topic is education and students vs. educational system.

All along the part 1 we find certain rhetorical questions, that we infer, Pinky is making to his own father.“Daddy what else did you leave for me? Daddy, what’d ‘a leave behind for me?!” He lost his father when he was only five months; he went to fight in favor of Great Britain during the Second World War, leaving Pinky and his mother along. This make Pinky live a life full of questions without respond. Since his childhood that the little boy started to create his wall, each brick, I believe, that are steps in life that he had to deal with and there is also, apparition of different feelings towards the happening that makes him what he was while he was a rock star, an anti-system mind.

During the second part, we can find an irony between the title of the song and the lyrics of it. There is no happiness if we are talking of someone, in this case the teachers, who hurt the students, not only physically but emotionally. We can see Pinky being mocked by the teachers and their mates because he was writing some poems. At that moment he enters into a “dream” were the children get on a rebellion against the system. The fact that he is being “bullied” at school is another brick for him and his life. There are certain points in life that framework so hard over him that with all of it create a barrier towards real life. In this part we start to see the way he thinks in relationship with educational system. He shows the main problem in the first lines of this second part: “When we grew up and went to school, there were certain teachers who would, hurt the children in any way they could”.

Simultaneously we enter into the third and last part, of the song; It is the most controversial part of the song where there are different aspects to consider. First of all, the main phrase of “We don´t need no education” which is ambiguous, present, mostly, the children´s dissatisfaction towards the system, they believe that there is another way of handle the situation and no to attend to violence. This phrase is followed by “You´re just another brick in the wall” creating an impact and, again, ambiguity. This metaphoric wall, I infer, that is the state trying to make everyone be as exactly as they can to make the country “stable and organized” what they don’t remember is that each one is different and there are another ways and even better to generate the same idea. For example, making everyone express their thoughts and feelings towards something and get on an agreement of it. Also, we can think of the idea that the wall is an isolated barrier where there is no intention of have any entrance of other countries, not even cultural and people itself.

If we get into details in the video, we can find impressive images; one of it is the one of the kids using masks, this represents the lost of individuality, the idea that we are all the same and there is only one view of the things. Moreover, the most shocking one is the big machine carrying the kids and putting on them this masks where all are marching and following a line where finally they felt into a meat processor. Remarkably, the factory represents the school and the only thing this one does is homogenize the students.

Finally, we get to know that the whole scene is a dream, visualization, of a desire of Pinky to break free from the oppression.

To sum up, the meaning of the movie towards Pinky is a way of showing how each brick he found during his life creates this wall that divides him from society that he was so against off. In addition, The Wall is an objection against school system that does not get any talent from the children; they are only focused in forcing all the students being equalized.