Category: Grade 12
I’m In Here – Sia
Video:
Lyrics:
Can anybody see me?
Can anybody help?
Can anybody help?
Are you coming to get me now?
I’ve been waiting for
You to come rescue me
I need you to hold
All of the sadness I can not
Living inside of me
I’m trying to tell you something
Can anybody help?
I’m calling out but you can’t hear
Can anybody help?
Are you coming to get me now?
I’ve been waiting for
You to come rescue me
I need you to hold
All of the sadness I can not
Living inside of me
I am fearing it all
Stuck inside these walls
Tell me there is hope for me
Is anybody out there listening?
Are you coming to get me now?
I’ve been waiting for
You to come rescue me
I need you to hold
All of the sadness I can not
Living inside of me
Can anybody see me?
Can anybody help?Analysis:
In this song, the singer, Sia, is looking out from within herself and feels trapped in her sad feelings as a result of her past. Portraying a normal appearance, she wants someone to help her, but no one can do that because no one sees how she’s truly feeling. She wants someone to see that not everything is as it seems. But in the end, everyone, including the people closest to her, look over her and her feelings. I believe Sia is attempting to portray her own personal feelings to the people closest to her- her friends, family, a significant other. She is attempting to reach out to people that love her for help in the struggle she is enduring with her personal feelings, but she is overlooked as a result of keeping a normal appearance.
The words the poet uses in the poem are abstract. The words express the concept of depression which is something that can’t be experienced with any of our five senses. Phrases and questions are repeated throughout the song such as, “Can’t you hear my call?” which expresses the distress the singer feels. The diction contributes to the poem by clearly expressing the feelings of the singer. The reader can experience the same emotion the singer does.
This song is serious and sad using phrases such as, “I’ve been waiting for you to come rescue me I need you to hold All of the sadness I cannot Living inside of me,” “I’m calling out but you can’t hear,” “I’m crying out, I’m breaking down I am fearing it all Stuck inside these wall.” It sets the tone and the tone stays the same throughout the whole poem.
The average line length in this song is 3-7 words per line. The average length of the stanza is 3-7 lines per stanza. It has no rhyme scheme and is described as an open poem.
Figurative language used in this song is, “Stuck inside these walls” which is a metaphor for feeling trapped within her feelings. “I need you to hold All of the sadness I cannot Living inside of me” is personification because sadness is being given human-like characteristics such as “living” and being something that can be held. “Prisoner of history” is a metaphor which represents that she feels these particular emotions as a result of an occurrence from her past that she can’t get over. There is irony is this song because Sia is calling out for help repeatedly, but not physically asking for help. The title is perfectly suiting for the song. In the song, she is calling out for help, but no one’s responding because she’s not showing her hurt on the outside. On the outside she looks perfectly normal proving that looks are deceiving and don’t show who a person really is. The title “I’m in here” is stating that who she is as a person and how she feels is inside her
The poet successfully recreates her experiences within the reader by her word choice, tone, and the melody of the song. In the song, the poet is calling out for help, and she sings about the sadness she feels. She sings with a soft tone and the melody is slow and both portray the hurt that she feels. The word choice, tone, and melody come together to make the sadness the poet is signing about resonate within the reader and make them feel it, too. Since the word choice is straightforward, it’s easy for the reader to imagine and strongly experience the feelings the poet feels within them. The poem succeeds in sharpening the reader’s awareness of something significant. The song talks about how someone’s appearance doesn’t demonstrate how they truly feel. Someone may look happy on the outside, but feel complete sadness within them.
Effects of Childhood Influences on Adults
Although many believe a personality is inherited at birth, certain traits develop from certain experiences throughout life. Obtaining a personality based on childhood influences is accurately represented by the main characters in the short stories Long Long After School, written by Ernest Buckler, and A Teachers’ Rewards, written by Robert Phillips. In both stories, the authors demonstrated the affects that bullying can have on certain individuals, not only in the moment it’s occurring, but in the long run as well. In Long Long After School, Wes portrays an African American male attending a school that’s attended predominately by white people. As a result, Wes is discriminated against for his skin colour by the students and faculty except for one teacher, Miss Trethewey. She saw Wes for who he was as a person rather than judging him based on his skin colour. In the short story, A Teachers’ Rewards, Raybe portrays a lower-class student that got tormented for his lack of wealth by his classmates and his teacher, Ms. Scofield. Unlike Ms. Trethewey, Ms. Scofield did not see Raybe for who he truly was beyond his appearance. As a result, both characters lived different lives that were heavily influenced by the experiences they had during their childhood.
Wes and Raybe grew up in opposite environments which led to differently experienced childhoods. Wes, unlike Raybe, had people in his life that cared about him. When Wes was younger, he punched a glass window that left him in need of a blood transplant, but “in those days no one felt too comfortable about having his blood siphoned” (Buckler, 52) because of the dangerous connotation associated with it. Despite the risk, Wes’s mother was willing to do it to keep her son safe. His mother was unable to follow through because she had a different blood type, but expressing she wanted to take the risk proved how much she loved him. Wes’s schoolteacher though, Miss Trethewey, offered to donate her blood for Wes to survive. It was not only a risk for someone to donate their blood to someone else, but Wes believed it was uncommon when it was for a person of a different race stating that “…no one felt like taking any chances for [him]…” (Buckler, 52). But Miss Trethewey was willing to give “a whole quart” (Buckler, 52) of blood to Wes for him to survive. Miss Trethewey risked her life and reputation to donate blood to Wes which clearly depicts how much Miss Trethewey also cared for Wes. Alternatively, Raybe was not exposed to the same affection that Wes was. From when he was young, Raybe’s parents and grandfather had died and he was left with his aunt who couldn’t provide much for him which left Raybe feeling isolated. The feeling of isolation heightened when he attended school because Raybe was constantly bullied by his teacher, Miss Scofield, in front of the class which hindered his ability to create friendships with the other kids as “The other kids left [him] out of things, because [Miss Scofield was] always saying [he] was bad” (Philips, 386). The bullying exemplifies that not only did Raybe have no support at home, but he had none at school either. In the end, Wes, although consistently picked on by his community, had people such as his mother and Miss Trethewey that cared for his wellbeing, whereas, Raybe had very little people that supported him. As a result of these outside influences, Wes and Raybe continued to lead different lives.
As a result of their upbringings, Wes and Raybe’s influences during their childhood led them to pursue different futures. Wes, although bullied by his community, had people in his life that cared for him. He was able to overcome the hardships of his childhood and became known as the “caretaker-about-town” (Buckler, 48) by the people that used to bully him. This occupation signifies that he grew up to become a caring person. Moreover, Wes is also known as the guy that has a house that “is furnished with almost nothing but books” (Buckler, 48), and “can quote anyone from Seneca to Henry James” (Buckler, 48). He has a reputation of being a knowledgeable man which is a favourable trait to have. In addition, he put a corsage on Miss Trethewey’s grave which exemplifies how he didn’t disregard the risks she took in standing up for him. The action symbolizes the constant love and respect he has for everything Miss Trethewey did to help him. Because of this, Wes grew up to be an honourable man despite the hardships he faced during his childhood. Alternatively, Raybe underwent constant teasing from his teacher and peers during his childhood and had no one that could support him through it. Because of that, he went down the wrong path and hung out with the “rocky crowd” (Philips, 386) which landed him in jail for 10 years. Following his release, Raybe confronted Miss Scofield for the harassment during his schoolyears. Raybe acted with aggression to get back at her which exemplifies how he grew up to become demoralized and hateful towards others. Wes was able to overcome adversities and become a respectable man, but Raybe expresses, through his actions, that he was unable to do the same. Wes lives a content life despite the trouble he was put through at a young age, whereas Raybe grew to have immense hatred towards others.
While they were both stereotyped during their childhood, the actions Wes and Raybe perused later in life exemplified their true characters. When Wes was younger, he was discriminated for his skin colour. “The kids used to tease [him] at school” (Buckler, 50), he was referred to as “dirty” (Buckler, 50) by his classmates, and make comments about how he would be “turning pale” (Buckler, 50) or “blushing” (Buckler, 50). After all the harassment he was put through, Wes grew up to stand up for himself. The narrator of the story was a former classmate of Wes that picked on him, but after Wes told his perspective of his childhood, the narrator was able to see Wes’ true character. Being able to change the perspective of someone who stereotyped him proves that Wes grew up to be nothing like how he was categorized. Moreover, Raybe was stereotyped based on his lack of wealth. His former teacher believed that he had “no motivation” (Philips, 385), “no follow-through” (Philips, 385) and claims that she “knew where [he’d] end up” (Philips, 385). She believed that since he came from little money that he was eventually going to go to jail because that’s “true to form” (Philips, 385) for people like him. Raybe got in with a “rocky crowd” (Philips, 386) and ended up in jail for ten years just as Miss Scofield predicted. When Raybe confronted Miss Scofield, instead of using his words to express himself like Wes did, he chose to use violence. He rapped her knuckles with a hammer which just continued to illustrate his stereotype. The actions Wes and Raybe ensued later in life expressed their true nature. Wes overcame the hate given by his community and lived a content life, whereas Raybe ended up in jail and acted according to the way he was categorized.
Wes and Raybe grew up to live unlike futures as a result of their different upbringings. Wes had a mother and teacher that stood up for him, but Raybe had no one on his side. These differences contributed in their dissimilar futures. Wes grew up to become an honourary man, one that no one believed he could be at a younger age, therefore overcoming the stereotype that was placed on him during his school years. Contrarily, Raybe grew up to be exactly how his teacher said he was going to be. He went to jail for many years and decided he wanted to get back at his former teacher for everything she put him through by using violence. Raybe grew up to be “true to form” (Philips, 385).Childhood influences don’t just affect adulthood, but they determine how the adult’s personality and behavior will be like. Differentchildhood experiences account for the differences that every individual has when they are older.