Analyse af Janis Ians 'Society's Child'

Hate: something we will all receive at some point. It can for instance be because of our behaviour, our visual appearance or because of one of the purest and most innocent things here on earth; love. An example of this can be found in the excerpt from Society’s Child – My Autobiography by Janis Ian published in 2009, which deals with the last mentioned example; hate because of love. This essay will include an analyzation of the style of writing as well as Janis Ian’s message of her song, by the same name of the autobiography.

The text is presented as a first-person narrator would be in any given short story, but since it is an excerpt from an autobiography it deals with Ian’s personal experiences, and is therefore described subjectively throughout the whole text. The story revolves around the 15-year-old Janis Ian’s experience with hate crime at one of her concerts, but is told by her present self and therefore includes some look backs from that given night. Most of the narration focusses on the night of the concert and as a result of this the writing mirrors the thoughts of a younger mind, which can be seen in the following example: “Oh no, He’d hit on the one thing that would sway me. Hadn’t my parents raised me to be a hero?” (Page 10, line 233-236) As you get older most of us will outgrow the dream scenario of there is villains to create chaos there will also be heroes to maintain balance by saving the day. Though since Janis Ian is only 15-years-old at this given time, she has not yet lost the hope of someone being able to save the world or in her case; defeating the troublemakers at her concert. Throughout the text there are various examples of the use of figurative language to make it easier for the readers to put themselves in her shoes and see the scenario through her eyes: “My fingers were getting clumsy; it felt like I was trying to play guitar with gloves on.” (Page 8, line 36-38) This makes it easier to relate with her, since it is not hard to imagine how challenging it would be to play a string instrument without being able to use your hands properly. Furthermore there are used different similes to make the text sound more lyrical, an example of this could be the following: “Then the people sitting around her had joined in, chanting as though they were at a religious service.” This makes the text both more creative and therefore more appealing for the reader to read, but can also give the text a more humorous twist.