Stylistic analysis of Freedom by Beyonce PDF

Preview

Summary

Download Stylistic analysis of Freedom by Beyonce PDF

Description

Polytechnic University of the Philippines San Juan Campus

Stylistic Analysis of Freedom by Beyoncé Knowles

Prepared by: Franco, Donna Melodee B.

October 15, 2016

1

INTRODUCTION What is Style? Every one of us has its own concept of style: the way we dress, speak, walk, write, communicate and sing are some ways to prove the uniqueness of our style. However, Crystal and Davy (ibid: 9, 10) distinguish “at least four commonly occurring senses” of the term: 1. Style may refer to some or all of the language habits of one person- as when we talk of Shakespeare’s style (or styles), or the style of James Joyce, or when we discuss questions of disputed authorship…more often, it refers in this way to a selection of language habits, the occasional linguistic idiosyncrasies which characterize an individual’s uniqueness…. 2. In a similar way, style may refer to some or all of the habits shared by a group of people at one time, or over a period of time, as when we talk about the style of Augustan poets, the style of Old English “heroic” poetry, the style in which civil service forms are written, or styles of public-speaking…. 3. Style is given a more restricted meaning when it is used in an evaluative sense, referring to the effectiveness of a mode of expression. This is implied by such popular definitions of style as “saying the right thing in the most effective way” or as “good manners” …. 4. Partly overlapping with the three senses just outlined is the wide spread use of the word “style” to refer solely to literary language. Style has long been associated primarily or exclusively with literature, as a characteristic of “good”, “effective”, or “beautiful” writing…. What is Stylistics? Stylistic is the science which explores readers interact with the language of (main literary) texts in order to explain how we understand, and are affected by texts when we read them (Khader, 2011). What is Stylistics Analysis and It’s Aim or Importance?

2

We, as English educators, encounter different kinds of literature that is needed to be interpret so that our students will be able to understand and appreciate it very well. There are various literary theories that we can use for interpretation. Nevertheless, the best way to understand a text is to examine it without being subjective. One of the unbiased approaches to analyze it is by looking at the text’s ideas and its form and tell what goes beyond through it. According to Tyson (2006), some of the most important concepts concerning the nature and importance of textual evidence is the use of concrete, specific examples from the text itself to validate our interpretations. Stylistic analysis is usually use for the purpose of observing the quality and meaning in a text. Dámová (2007) distinguish the aim of stylistic analysis in five folds: “The intention is to identify stylistic markers, to study how the stylistic devices used help to achieve the communicative aim of the text, and to identify the functional style the text is representative of. Two more points should not be omitted – to study how close the text is to the norm of the functional style, and to analyze, if present, the language features of the text which are not typical of the style and identify the reasons for using them.” p.40

Introduction to the song “Freedom” Freedom” is an anthem dedicated to African-American empowerment sang by Beyoncé with collaboration to Kendrick Lamar, a rapper. The message of the entire song is about to overcome and freedom from oppression and social ills like racism is within reach. The song was written by: John Lomax Sr., Alan Lomax, Frank Tirado, Kendrick Lamar, Dean McIntosh, Carla Williams, Beyoncé and Jonathan Coffer. This song was released on April 23, 2016 and recorded at The Beehive, Los Angeles, CA by Stuart White (Freedom, n.d). Beyoncé Knowles is one of the most influential personality in nowadays generation. She is a multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning recording artist who’s acclaimed for her thrilling vocals, videos and live shows. Beyoncé was born on September 4, 1981, Houston, Texas. She started singing at an early age, competing in local talent shows and winning many of these events by impressing audiences with her singing and dancing abilities. She was married to hip hop artist, Jay Z in 2008. In 2001, she became the First African-American woman. Most of her songs is about women empowerment and one of it is her song entitled “Freedom” (Beyoncé Knowles biography, n.d)

3

Though we had briefly touched the biography of Beyoncé, the focus of our paper is on analyzing the song “Freedom” by Beyoncé Knowles according to stylistic approach. We try to examine the song by identifying the stylistic levels presents in the poem: phonological level, grammatical level, lexical level. Through these presents points we try to make clear of it and provide example to prove our analysis.

LEVELS OF STYLISTIC ANALYSIS We use the following levels of stylistic analysis to interpret the song “Freedom”. A. Phonological Level 1. There is no standard meter used in the song. 2. There are some rhyming words found in some lines of the song but it is not consistent. Example of rhyming words are new/blue, you/too, waters/borders, direction/possession, and me/be. 3. There are also alliteration present in the song. For instance, a. Tryna rain on the thunder b. I’ma wade, I’ma wave through the waters c. I’m telling these tears d. Fire hydrants and hazardous e. Yeah, open our mind as we cast away oppression 4.

Assonance– the repetition of vowel sounds (List of figures of speech, n.d). It

can also be found in the song. These are some of the examples: a. Stole from me, lied to me, nation hypocrisy b. Like yeah, open correctional gates in higher desert c. Yeah, open the streets and watch our beliefs d. And when they carve my name inside the concrete 5. Consonance- the repetition of consonant sounds (List of figures of speech, n.d) . a. Tryna rain, tryna rain on the thunder b. Tryna rain, tryna rain on the thunder 4

c. I’m a riot, I’m a riot through your borders B. Graphological Level 1. The song “Freedom” is composed of three verses. The first verse that is sang by Beyoncé comprised of 8 lines. Next of it is the pre- chorus (2 lines) and the chorus (8 lines). After the repeated chorus is the second verse which is still sang by Beyoncé is divided into two stanzas with four lines in it. The pre chorus and the chorus is repeated after the second verse. The third verse is a rap by Kendrick Lamar. It consists of twenty-two lines followed by repeated chorus and then an outro also by Kendrick Lamar that consists of five lines. The last part is a line that is spoken by Hattie White. 2. There is a usual capitalization at the beginning of every line. 3. There is also a commonly used of comma, quotation mark, exclamation point and question mark and apostrophe. 4. Phrases and sentence fragments are commonly found in the song. C. Grammatical Level In the entire song, we observed the frequent use of punctuation marks such as comma, exclamation point, quotation marks and question marks and apostrophe. 1. Comma- is often used at the middle of every lines all throughout the song. We can notice that full stop or period is not used especially when it is needed to serve as an end of the line. 2. Exclamation Point- is used to express sudden emotion (Stilman, 1997). In the song, exclamation point is used at the first four lines of the chorus to express the strong need for freedom. Chorus: Freedom! Freedom! I can’t move Freedom, cut me loose! Freedom! Freedom! Where are you? Cause I need freedom too! 3. Question Mark- is a punctuation mark that is used to indicate queries uncertainty, tentativeness, incredulity, and rhetorical questions (Stilman, 1997). Question mark in the song “Freedom” is often used in the outro part to 5

pose rhetorical questions- one for which no answer is expected or which the answer is self- evident since the persona of the song is talking to God. [Outro: Kendrick Lamar] What you want from me? Is it truth you seek? Oh, father can you hear me? What you want from me? Is it truth you seek? Oh, father can you hear me? Here me out 4. Quotation Mark- In this song, the quotation mark is used to set off dialogues (List of figures of speech, n.d). For instance, I’m telling these tears, “Go and fall away, fall away” (Pre- Chorus) Tell the tide, “Don’t move” (Verse two) 5. Apostrophe- In this song, apostrophe is often used to indicate omissions in contracted words which makes the song too informal (List of figures of speech, n.d). For instance, [Verse 1] Tryna rain, tryna rain on the thunder Tell the storm I’m new I’ma walk, I’ma march on the regular Painting white flags blue Lord forgive me, I’ve been running Running blind in truth I’ma rain, I’ma rain on this bitter love Tell the sweet I’m new The words like “tryna” short for “trying to”, I’m short for I am, I’ve short for I have and I’ma short for “I am going to” are example of contracted words that can be found in the song “Freedom”. Other contracted verbs are also used like runnin’, movin’, misleadin’, wavin’ askin’, and guidin’. The habitual usage of these contracted words makes the song less formal or slang. Slang words or phrases are often used by the African-American people. Morphological Features 6

NOUNS Rain

PRONOUNS ADJECTIVES New I’m (I am)

Thunder

Me

Regular

Tell

Storm

I’ve (I have)

White

Walk

Flags

These

Blue

March

Truth

I

Blind

Painting

Love

You

Bitter

Forgive

Tears

Myself

Loose

Running

Freedom

My

Sweet

Telling

Chains

I’ma

Flames

going to/ I’m Shallow

Hell

gonna)

Deep

Burn

Winner

Themselves

Last

Move

Wave

Your

Eight

Cut

Waters

Us

Seven

Need

Riot

Our

Misleadin’(Misle

Break

Lord

We

ading)

Rot

Tide

They

Six

Quit

Practice

All

Five

Meditate

Channel 9

Hazardous

Movin’ (Moving)

News

Wicked

Wavin’ (Waving)

Death

Open

Alarms

Corner

Higher

Askin’ (Asking)

Statements

Forever

Runnin’

Persona

Inner

(Running)

(I

am Bulletproof

ADVERBS Honestly

MAIN VERBS Tryna’ (Trying to)

Go Fall

Headlights

Jump

Direction

Cry

Possession

Ride

Aqueducts

Try

Fire Hydrants

Live

Smoke

Breathe

Mama

Sing

Nation

Guidin’ (Guiding) 7

Hypocrisy

Gotta be (Going

Spirit

to be)

Gates

Stole

Desert

Led

Mind

Code

Oppression

Drive

Streets

Inspired

Beliefs

Open

Name

Cast

Concrete

Watch

Father

Carve

Strength

Pray

Lemons

Reads

Lemonade

Want Seek Hear Find Pull Served Made

D. Lexical Level We can see from the table above that the song is composed mainly of nouns and main verbs. The nouns are also mainly abstract. Abstract nouns are usually the name of quality, action or state considered apart from the objects such as the following: Truth

Love

Freedom

Hell

Riot

Lord

Practice

News

Death

Statements

Direction

Possession

8

Nation

Hypocrisy

Mind

Oppression Spirit

Beliefs

Name

Strength

From these abstract nouns we can conclude that the song “Freedom” features the “negative social issues” such as death, hell, riot, oppression, and nation hypocrisy. And the nouns like truth, love, freedom, lord, riot, direction, and strength are the words that we can associate from “being empowered”. WORDSTHAT

ARE

RELATED

TO WORDS

THAT

ARE

SOCIAL ISSUES Riot

BEING EMPOWERED Freedom

Nation Hypocrisy

Truth

Blind Truth

Love

Death

Strength

Oppression

Possession

Freedom

Beliefs

Fire Hydrants

Spirit

Hazardous Smoke Alarms

Direction

RELATED

TO

Bulletproof

To help prove or establish more the subject matter of this song, let us try to look some phrases from the text that expresses empowerment or being strong. a) “I break chains all by myself” (chorus, line 5) b) “Won’t let my freedom rot in hell” (chorus, line 6) c) “Hey, I’ma keep running” (chorus, line 7) d) “Cause a winner don’t quit themselves” (chorus, line 8) e) “Call me bulletproof” (verse 2, line 4) f) “Wicked, my spirit inspired me” (verse 3, line 17) g) “Yeah, open our mind as we cast away oppression” (verse 3, line 19)

9

h) “I had my ups and downs, but I always find the inner strength to pull myself up.” (Spoken: Hattie White)

If we look at the main verbs such as walk, march, running, go, move, movin’ (moving), try, live, breathe, drive, inspired, pray, seek and find we can conclude that these verbs are persuasive words that encourages actions or a need to do something positive or to move forward.

SCHEMES AND TROPES IN THE SONG “FREEDOM” 1. Personification is a figure of speech in which human characteristics are attributed to an abstract quality, animal, or inanimate object (List of figures of speech, n.d). These are the examples that can be found in the text: a. Tell the storm I'm new b. I'm telling these tears, "Go and fall away, fall away" c. Tell the tide, "Don't move" d. Tell the deep I'm new e. Six headlights wavin' in my direction 2. Apostrophe is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea (List of figures of speech, n.d). These are the example lines from the text: Freedom! Freedom! I can't move Freedom, cut me loose! Freedom! Freedom! Where are you? Cause I need freedom too! 3. Rhetorical questions is a figure of speech for which no answer is expected or which the answer is self- evident (Aslam, S., Aslam, B., Mukthar & Sarfaraz, 2014). What you want from me? Is it truth you seek? Oh, father can you hear me? 10

What you want from me? Is it truth you seek? Oh, father can you hear me? 4. Tone is the poet’s attitude towards his or her subject or readers. It is similar to tone of voice but should not be confused with mood or atmosphere (Aslam, S., Aslam, B., Mukthar & Sarfaraz, 2014). The author’s attitude towards the song is serious, eager and obsess to freedom.

THEME The song “Freedom” is a good example to express our emotions about what we think is right. Freedom to express our ideas without being afraid that we might get judge by someone or everyone. It encourages us to do what we want to do as long as we believe that it is good and just without minding what the society wants us to do. Be enlighten about the wrong doings of the government and the rules of the society. Just like the song of Bob Marley entitled “Get up, stand up” this song is about revolution of mind, empowerment and social injustices. HOW THEME IS FOREGROUNDED? Metaphors and Symbolisms There are a lot of metaphors and symbolisms that can be found in the song “Freedom”. Let us examine it by looking at the whole text for us to be able to know on how the theme is foregrounded. [Verse 1: Beyoncé] Tryna rain, tryna rain on the thunder Tell the storm I'm new I'ma walk, I'ma march on the regular 11

Painting white flags blue Lord forgive me, I've been running Running blind in truth I'ma rain, I'ma rain on this bitter love Tell the sweet I'm new Rain is a very common weather phenomenon all around the world as water falls from the sky in millions of droplets. The word “rain” is also a verb and can be used metaphorically to indicate something occurs very fast and in great quantities. Normally, when we hear thunder, we know that a storm is on its way. The concept of “thunder” metaphorically indicates that some sort of trouble is on its way (Metaphor politics, 2014). The line “Tryna rain, tryna rain on the thunder” means that the persona of the song is trying to cause or dare to bring great trouble. Or trying to challenge or defy something. The concept of a “storm” is also used to describe the energy in a person in a great effort to do something (Metaphor politics, 2014). The line Tell the storm I'm new

is like the idea of storming back and indicates an aggressively return to

accomplish a goal left unfinished at a previous time. The word “walk” when we try to look at it in the dictionary, it means a manner of living or conduct or behavior. While the word “march” means to make steady progress, to move in a purposely manner, to proceed or to advance. The word regular refers to the established rule, law or principle or it can also be the status quo. The line I'ma walk, I'ma march on the regular means that the persona is going to proceed or to move in a direct purposely manner or to go beyond the established rule or law or to challenge the status quo. The color “white” symbolizes surrender while the “blue” symbolizes stability (Examples of symbolism, n.d).Therefore the line Painting white flags blue means never surrender or never give up. When we try to summarize the meaning of the first verse of the song, we can conclude that the persona is trying to change on what is happening. In a simple term, the persona is trying to rebel and he or she wants revolution. [Chorus: Beyoncé] Freedom! Freedom! I can't move Freedom, cut me loose! 12

Freedom! Freedom! Where are you? Cause I need freedom too! I break chains all by myself Won't let my freedom rot in hell Hey! I'ma keep running Cause a winner don't quit on themselves “Freedom” in the dictionary refers to the liberation from slavery or restraint from the power of others. The lines Freedom! Freedom! I can't move/Freedom, cut me loose! /Freedom! Freedom! Where are you? /Cause I need freedom too! means that the persona has the great determination to be free from slavery or restraint. This is manifested from the frequent used of exclamation points which indicates strong emotions.

The lines I break chains all by myself/Won't let my freedom rot in

hell/Hey! I'ma keep running/Cause a winner don't quit on themselves indicates that the persona is not going to just sit or doing nothing. She is not going to resign or submit until she gets the freedom that she wanted to achieve. [Verse 2: Beyoncé] I'ma wade, I'ma wave through the waters Tell the tide, "Don't move" I'ma riot, I'ma riot through your borders Call me bulletproof

Lord forgive me, I've been runnin' Runnin' blind in truth I'ma wade, I'ma wave through your shallow...