In their song, "Why You'd Want to Live Here", Death Cab for Cutie appealed to pathos using imagery. The tone of the song was very low beat and critical. Death Cab for Cutie kept repeating, "I can't see why you'd want to live here" to encourage the reader to question why anyone would want to live in a big, filthy city. Throughout the song they also repeated the phrase "I'm in Los Angeles today...", followed by an experience or observation that illustrated the horrible environmental conditions in they city, such as "garbage cans comprise the medians of freeways" and "asked a gas station employee if he ever had trouble breathing and he said 'it varies from season to season, kid'". When the listener hears things like that it immediately creates an image in their head of a garbage filled city with smog and people having trouble breathing. The intended effect of this imagery on the listener is to realize the dump we are turning our cities into. This effect was strengthened by Death Cab for Cutie's choice of city. When people think of LA they think of blue skies, Hollywood, summertime, movie stars, and happiness. Therefore, this change in the listener's image of LA, from beautiful to filthy, combined with the song's tone has a significant impact on the listener's awareness of the environmental and aesthetic problems that humans have caused in big cities.
I liked how you paraphrased the song theme. The only drawback, I feel, is lack of description on how this song appealed pathos. Pathos means feelings which has broad definition you need to be specific about what emotions it emits.
ReplyDeleteI like the quotes that you choose from the song. I think that you could further your analysis of the lyrics by saying another sentence about how this makes the listeners feel. For example, you say the "effect of this imagery on the listener is to realize the dump we are turning our cities into." Go one step further and say how this would make listeners feel and connect it to pathos.
ReplyDelete-Allyson