Ms. Holmes Essay

ENG 101 “Somebody cries in the middle of the night, the neighbors hear but they turn out the lights” (Lyrics). More than five children die every day as a result of child abuse (source 1). The artist uses this music video to make it aware to everyone that if you even suspect child abuse, make sure you do something about it you can save a life. In Martina McBride’s music video “Concrete Angel”, she portrays her message through her literary devices; play on emotions through props and characters. The song starts out, “She walks to school with the lunch she packed” (lyrics). Right from the start Martina tells the audience a mother has neglected her little girl. Her mother doesn’t even care enough to even help her pack her lunch, but then she leaves her to walk all the way to school by herself. When all of the other children at that age have their parents make them their lunch and drop them off at the front door. Her mother has made her responsible for herself and independent. She is pretty much just telling her child that she doesn’t even care what happens to her. The first line of the song is setting the mood for the entire song. The story of a neglected child just tears at the heartstrings of for anyone that listens. The audience is now experiencing sorrow, and maybe even relating to a time when they felt left out or abandoned. So now she is at school and Martina goes into not only what clothes she is wearing but also describing the little girl. “Wearin’ the same dress she wore yesterday, she hides the bruises with the linen and lace” (lyrics). She doesn’t even have someone to give her clean clothing. She also has to worry about covering her bruises and marks from what her mother has done to her so no one would wonder what has been happening to her. The audience mentally connects the “linen and lace” of her dress to the beauty and innocence of the little girl, but yet how fragile and delicate a child is. The next line “The teacher wonders, but she doesn’t ask” and in the video the little girl sits at her desk and her teacher walks by and notices bruises on the little girls arm, but is too scared to say anything. This was Martina’s way of convincing people that when you see anything like that you will not be afraid to say something. Speak up, not only can you make a difference, you can save a life. Then the chorus begins, “Through the wind and the rain she stands hard as a stone in a world that she can’t rise above” (Lyrics). The meaning behind the lyrics shows that throughout her life she has been through the hardest times and she has done the best she can to try and make it through. The next part is referring to where she’s stuck in this place called earth, and cannot rise above, meaning go to heaven. Not only were the lyrics giving the audience that bad feeling in your stomach, the video effectively educates everyone about the horrible life a child would go through being abused. The video portrays these emotions through music, clothing, and characters. The song was written and composed by Stephanie Bentley and Rob Crosby. Through out the song the music would start off high and twinkling, then transition to low loud pounding moments. The high parts representing the sweet little girl’s innocence, while the low parts represented the anger and abuse the mom was doing to her child. Martina also adds emphasis on singing quietly and then loudly, and slow to fast to add emphasis on major events through out the chorus.
Now in the beginning of the video it shows the mom smoking a cigarette in her bedroom while the daughter grabs her lunch and walks to school. Smoking is apparently the mom’s priority to fulfill her addiction, while the little girl is off to school. Once she gets to school, she sees another mom dropping her daughter off giving her a hug, while the little girl enters with an upturned expression on her face. Throughout the video Martina is wearing a blouse with wide pointy sleeves. She sweeps her arms

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