"Another interesting aspect about this pre-song scene is the blatant parallel between the faceless passengers in the train (presumably school children as evidenced in the next song as well as the brief mask seen on Pink between the passing train cars) and the millions of "faceless" Jews transported to concentration camps during World War II. In the case of the Wall, that “something else” is life itself."Įxcerpted from "Another Brick In The Wall, part 1" analysis Simply put, the metaphorical wall is nothing more than its physical counterpart: a collection of bricks separating us from something else. As presented in Pink Floyd’s album, over time these individual bricks coalesce into a mental wall that, while helping to temper our psyches, can adversely affect our connection with reality and at times create various syndromes and personality disorders that, in a vicious cycle, further severs that connection with reality. As a result, we create metaphorical bricks in our minds in an attempt to distance ourselves from feeling emotionally raw and vulnerable.
As a society, and equally as individuals, we have been conditioned to distance ourselves from pain, even if that pain helps us in the long run. Coupled with these are coping strategies and what psychoanalysts label defense mechanisms, the unconscious psychological devices we use to cope with any number of problems that we perceive to threaten our self – our ego. Because life can be daunting at times, we all have a tendency to distance ourselves from it – television and other activities take our minds off it alcohol dulls it drugs alter the reality of it. As a physical object, a wall is a collection of material that is used as a partition to separate two or more things the metaphor of the wall as it is used in the album and all subsequent incarnations holds true to this definition, though generally on a metaphysical plane. If anything, I’d say the main idea behind the Wall is quite simple. The album is so grand and intricate that many fans are intimidated by the thought of interpreting the main symbol of the piece, thinking that there is always more to the metaphor than meets the eye.
#PINK FLOYD THE WALL ALBUM OR MOVIE FULL#
Since my first analysis went online in 1997, I’ve received more than a few e-mails asking for a full explanation of the symbol, but surprisingly there is little to address. "As imposing as the central metaphor of the Wall may seem, it is not all that difficult to parse.