"What It's Like"
Student Essay
In their writing, psychological realists wanted to portray the thoughts and
feelings of characters struggling with moral questions or social
expectations. Realist authors, like Stephen Crane, strove to portray
common people and ordinary life accurately. The song, "What It's
Like" by the artist Everlast contains the same qualities as the realists
and psychological realists were driven to portray.
Social expectations upon an individual play a big part in "What It's
Like". In the first verse, the speaker describes a not so rare
occurrence of a beggar pleading for money, and the reaction of both individuals
and society in the lines, "We've all seen a man at the liquor store
beggin' for your change/The hair on his face is dirty, dread-locked, and full
of main/He asks a man for what he could spare, with shame in his eyes/"Get
a job you fucking slob," is all he replies." These lines can be
compared to a set of lines from Walt Whitman's poem, "I Sit and Look Out",
"I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon
laborers, the poor, and upon negroes and the like."
In "I sit and Look Out" the speaker is witness to pain and suffering.
In the third verse, the lines, "I've seen a rich man beg/I've seen a good
man sin/I've seen a tough man cry/I've seen a loser win/And a sad man grin/I
heard an honest man lie/I've seen the good side of bad/And the downside of
up/And everything between" convey the same idea that the speaker in
"What It's Like" is also witness to pain and suffering.
Whitman, however, explains in the lines, "All these- all the meanness and
agony without end I sitting look out upon, / See, Hear, and am silent."
that he does nothing about the occurrences that he observes. While
Whitman seems to be concerned with his complacency, that is in contrast to
Everlast, who makes no inward reflections about his role in changing the
outcome of these situations.
In addition to social expectations, realists dealt with moral questions.
This is another element of "What It's Like." The issue of
teenage pregnancy, and the question of abortion are two moral questions raised
in the lines, "Mary got pregnant from a kid named Tom that said he was in
love/He said, "Don't worry about a thing, baby doll/I'm the man you've
been dreaming of."/But 3 months later he say he won't date her or return
her calls/And then she heads for the clinic and/she gets some static walking
through the door/They call her a killer, and they call her a sinner/and they
call her a whore."
Realist pieces are characterized that way because of their shocking depictions,
and grisly extreme realism. "What It's Like" contains all of
the elements of a realistic work, touching base on topics some would not dare
to talk about. Some of the language in the song may be found
controversial to some, as well. Realist's works have been controversial
since the beginning. Another example is Stephen Crane, who's first novel,
"Maggie: A Girl of The Streets" was rejected by publishers because of
it's descriptions of the degradation and immorality of slum life. "What
It's Like", like realism, probes the lives of common people and
ordinary life through characters struggling with moral questions and social
expectations.