The Boy In The Bubble Analysis

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At the beginning of the 1980s, the world's focus shifted to the advancement of technology. This new headway in tech was met with either excitement or skepticism. Due to the increase in society's fixation on the progression of technology, Paul Simon and Forere Motloheloa wrote “The Boy in the Bubble”. The song was written to show that, despite some of the negative fallouts of technology, people should not be afraid of innovation. The early years of the 1980s saw some great technological transitions in medicine and warfare. “Think of the boy in the bubble, And the baby with the baboon heart” is a line that refers to some of these advances in medicine (Motloheloa, Simon). David vetter was a boy diagnosed with severe combined immunodeficiency, he was forced to live in a sterile environment-hence the nickname the boy in the bubble-until his death at the age of 12. In 1984, just two years before the songs release, a baby was born with a defective heart, doctors transferred a baboon’s heart, and Baby Fae was able to live until twenty days later. Both David Vetter and Baby Fae are examples of technology aiding humanity, and also is a contrast of tech vs. nature. While both of those events were examples of betterment due to tech, “The bomb in the baby …show more content…

The line “These are the days of miracle and wonder” refers to-as stated in an interview- how science and technology are creating miracles routinely (Motloheloa, Simon). The chorus calls for the listener to “don’t cry baby, don’t cry” as if to say: the world may seem scary and ever evolving, but people should not feel afraid of that fact (Motloheloa, Simon). Despite the tragedies already mentioned, “And the dead sand, falling on children” implying that future generations are the true victims of this technological backlash, the song gives a message of this is a time to not be afraid, but to accept and innovate (Motloheloa,

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