Beyonce’s Lemonade Literary Analysis ENG 230 copy PDF

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Literary Analysis of Beyoncé’s Film “Lemonade”...

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Chloe Whitten Jacob Ferrington ENG 230-007 11 November 2019 The Eleven Stages of Lemonade: Is Beyoncé Grieving More Than Her Marriage? Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is one of the most well-known musical artists and influencers in popular culture today. Her sixth studio album Lemonade was released in April of 2016, and it contains multiple messages including her healing process through her separation, redemption, and reunification with her husband, Shawn Corey Carter, also known as Jay-Z. Is her marriage the only thing she is grieving, though? The visual presentation of the film, her song lyrics, and the script of poetry all speak to the “issues” of being a black and being a woman in America and how being both can present an even larger issue. Could this have affected both her grief and her healing? Could this be a reason for her grieving? Through her progress, Beyoncé uses both the lyrics of her songs and poetry from Warsan Shire to break barriers of the seven stages of grief—shock, denial, pain, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—that we have come to know in the present. In this visual album, she expresses her eleven stages that include intuition, denial, anger, apathy, emptiness, accountability, reformation, forgiveness, resurrection, hope, and redemption. Beyoncé is very intentional in every aspect of this film, and, if we, the audience, dig deeper, we can see that she is grieving more than her marriage alone. Beyoncé’s first stage is intuition, and it corresponds with the song “Pray You Catch Me.” In this phase, she has a feeling or “hunch” that something is wrong with either her husband or her relationship. The very first line of the song states, “You can taste the dishonesty, it’s all over

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your breath,” and in the voice over, she asks the question, “What are you hiding?” (line 9). She states that she knows he has been lying to her, and she is not at ease about the situation. She does not necessarily want to hide that she knows, however. In the chorus of the song, she admits, “I’m prayin’ to catch you whispering, I pray you catch me listening” (9-10). Beyoncé is eavesdropping, and she hopes Jay-Z notices both her hurt and her suspicion; she wants him to catch her both literally and figuratively in the sense of catching her listening in to his conversations and catching her before she falls out of love with him.She also touches on the oppression of African Americans and women in the line, “The past and the future merge to meet us here,” by pointing out that the same issues of the past are apparent in present (10). To continue, the second phase of the album is denial, and it interacts with “Hold Up.” The voice over describes Beyoncé’s process of trying to change; she wonders why her husband no longer loves her, and she thinks the problem is within her. Beyoncé tries to make her husband like her more by torturing herself in various ways. The poetry expresses, “I tried to change, closed my mouth more / Tried to be soft, prettier, less awake / Fasted for sixty days, wore white, abstained from mirrors / Abstained from sex, slowly did not speak another word,” and later states, “I bathed in bleach and plugged my menses with pages from the Holy Book / But still inside me coiled deep was the need to know / Are you cheating on me?” (1-4, 18-20). That last line tells us she explicitly knows he is cheating, but she still denies it because she does not want it to be true. In the lines of the song, Beyoncé touches on the stereotype of women being known as jealous and crazy, but she states that she would rather be crazy than continue to be jealous, and she embraces this craziness by using a baseball bat to smash cars all over the streets. This

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baseball bat labeled “Hot Sauce” is a reference to black culture in America that we later see in the song “Formation.” In turn, Beyoncé’s denial shifts to anger in her third stage with “Don’t Hurt Yourself.” She opens with, “Who the f*** do you think I is / You ain’t married to no average b**** boy,” and she restates this line further saying, “Who the f*** do you think I is / I smell that fragrance on your Louis knit boy / Just give my fat a** a big kiss boy / Tonight I’m f***ing up all your sh** boy” (1-2, 55-56). Just reading these words, the listener can tell that she is angry, and her tone and attitude in the film portray this even further. She even has the courage to say, “If you try this sh** again / You gonna lose your wife,” in the last two lines while throwing a ring at the camera (75-76). Showing pride in her black heritage, Beyoncé rocks corn rows and references Malcom X, a minster and human rights activist who was popular during the civil rights movement. The film and voice over cut to a recording of him declaring, “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman” ( Lemonade 13:35-13:50). She then expresses her confidence in being a woman with the lines, “And keep your money / I got my own,” and, “I am the dragon breathing fire / Beautiful mane I’m the lion” (5-6, 38-39). Both creatures, the dragon and the lion, are extremely powerful, and Beyoncé wants to show us that women are too. Moreover, the album’s next juncture, apathy, and “Sorry” are essentially a huge middle finger to Jay-Z and America. There are many cultural references in this song such as “He better call Becky with the good hair,” “Suck on my balls,” and, “Now you want to call me crying” (79, 14, 35). The term “Becky” is expressed as a typical Caucasian woman, and “good hair” refers to hair that is straight and not curly; this is unlike that of an African American. The next two terms

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serve as gender assumption phrases. “Suck on my balls” is considered to be masculine, while “Now you want to call me crying” is considered feminine. However, in this case, the roles are flipped; this is another power move in favor of women. The line “I ain’t sorry,” is repeated almost 25 times throughout. This emphasizes that Beyoncé is not sorry that she is angry and/or leaving after the mistakes that have been made, and she will not apologize for neither being black nor being a woman and embracing who she is. Conversely, emptiness is the next piece, and it interacts with “6 Inch.” This piece speaks largely on femine power but also to women being seen as weak without men. Beyoncé demands respect for not only strippers but also working women in general with lines, “She works for the money / She work for the money / From the start to the finish / And she worth every dollar / She worth every dollar / And she worth every minute” (21-26). The emptiness comes into play during the poem and the last remarks of the song. Beyoncé professes, “Whenever he pulls out / Lost,” and the last five lyrics repeat the two desparate words “Come back” (14-15, 70-74). This is an extremely vulnerable point for her as she admits the longing for her husband to return to her. In the next stage, accountability, “Daddy Issues” is presented, and Beyoncé talks largely about the similarities between Jay-Z and her father, Matthew Knowles, by posing a series of questions and ending with, “Am I talking about your husband or your father?” (22) She brings light to motherhood through poetry with “Your mother is a woman / And women like her cannot be contained” (11-12). This scene also celebrates black heritage and ancestry with its jazz swing feel, Beyoncé’s patterned dress and crown styled hair, and the stone tunnel that alludes to the Underground Railroad. Nonetheless, the next phase is reformation which corresponds with “Love Drought.” While Beyoncé still feels as if the problem lies within her in asking, “Tell me what did I do

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wrong,” and, “If I wasn’t me would you still feel me?”, she also discloses that she would love her husband no matter what with the lines, “I don’t care about the lights or the beam / I’d spend my life in the dark / For the sake of you and me,” and, “But you are the love of my life” (28, 12, 1618, 7). As much as she wants to walk away and leave him in the dust, she knows that she loves him beyond measure. There is also a frame containing a close up of Beyoncé with face paint reminiscent of African tribes as well as a hairstyle that in a textured hairstyle that is common among African American women and children (37:49). Continually, the next song is “Sandcastles.” This masterpiece is the most raw, real, and emotional song of the album and, quite possibly, her career. This tear jerking ballad correlates with the phase of forgiveness and is the first time we see her husband, Jay-Z, in the visual presentation of the album. The lyrics of sandcastles being built and then washed away bring light of their relationship seeming strong but easily being carried away by mistakes. Bey tells her story of not being able to keep her promise of abandonment if cheated on and her inability to “get over” or forget about her husband. Before the song begins, the viewer gets a pan of the house that Beyoncé is recording in, and for a split second there is a shot of a bowl on the countertop (39:23). To most, it looks like an ordinary bowl, but it is a piece of Japanese Kintsugi. This translates to “golden joinery,” and is a craftsmanship used often in Japanese culture and art. Kintsugi is a means of repairing broken pottery by mending it with gold. The flaw is seen as a unique piece if the objects history which adds to its beauty. This simple yet elegant prop is an astonishing metaphor for Beyoncé, her marriage to Jay-Z, and the oppression of African Americans and women. What once was strong has been broken, repaired with gold, and put back together to make something even more beautiful than before.

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In addition, resurrection and “Forward” are our next division. This spectacle is a conglomeration of colored women—mothers, daughters, and wives—holding pictures of their loved ones that have been taken by means of police brutality (44:25). We even catch a glimpse of Trayvon Martin’s mother with his picture. Both the song lyrics and the poetry tell a story of taking the next steps forward through love. This message applies to marriage, racism, and sexism. Our next fragment, hope and “Freedom,” has a very strong theme of newness and rebirth. In the voice over, the listener hears, “That night in a dream the first girl emerges from a slit in my stomach,” and three lines later hears, “I wake as the second girl crawls up headfirst up my throat / A flower blossoming out of the hole in my face” (5, 9-10). The visual also shows a hole in the ceiling of the stone structure that it is set in (47:20). Beyoncé has gained a new voice from becoming a mother and can now better represent women and mothers. The lyrics state, “I’ma rain / I’ma reign / On this bitter love / Tell the sweet I’m new” (10-13). Beyoncé could have used “bittersweet,” but she instead chooses to leave the bitter behind and take only the sweet for the sake of her love. In terms of oppression, the lyrics speak the lines, “I’ma keep running cause a winner don’t quit on themselves,” “Six headlights waving in my direction,” and, “Fire hydrants and hazardous / Smoke alarms on the back of us” (26, 54, 57-58). The latter two are references to police cars and elements used in riots to control the masses, and the first is telling the audience that those who are oppressed will not stop fighting until they get what they deserve. Lastly, our final stage is redemption paired with “All Night.” The poetry opens with a recipe for lemonade, and then says, “Grandmother, the alchemist / You spun gold out of this hard life / Conjured beauty from the things left behind / Found healing where it did not live /

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Discovered the antidote in your own kitchen / Broke the curse with your own two hands” (5-10). Later she countines with, “My grandma said, nothing real can be threatened / True love brought salvation back into me / With every tear came redemption / And my torturer became my remedy / So we’re gonna heal, we’re gonna start again”(13-17). Beyoncé learns that that if their love is as real as she says, it cannot be threatened. She also sees that anything can be made new and redeemed no matter how broken. To conclude, Beyoncé’s visual album, Lemonade, her song lyrics, and the script of poetry all speak to the “issues” of being a black and being a woman in America and how being both can present an even larger issue. She uses a newly formed eleven stages— intuition, denial, anger, apathy, emptiness, accountability, reformation, forgiveness, resurrection, hope, and redemption— to show her healing process. If we, the audience, digs dipper, it can be seen that Beyoncé is grieving more than her marriage alone....