The Theme Of Existentialism In Sleeping Lessons By The Shins

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The first piece of work i chose for this assignment was a song called Sleeping lessons by The Shins.The Shins are a popular band that is known for their rock sound. Each song has deeps lyrics and leaves the listener with their own interpretation of the song. Many of The Shins songs touch on existential themes.
In the song, Sleeping Lessons, the lead singer, James Mercer is encouraging us the listener to take advantage of their free will. He advises to break free from absolute systems or the things that you’re a part of that define who you are. Sleeping Lessons discusses breaking free from absolute systems. An absolute system is a system that has an enforced code of conduct. Absolute systems limit peoples own personal meaning to their life, they restrain a person from being who they really are meant to be. Sleeping Lessons portrays breaking free from these systems. James Mercer sings, “Jump from the book,/ You’re not obliged to swallow anything you despise,” Mercer emphasizes breaking away from the norms that everyone is following and to do what you want. A big part of existentialism is that you create your own personal meaning to your life no one else. When James Mercer says, “jump from the book” he is explaining not to be ruled by …show more content…

Throughout the entire movie, Charlie doesn 't live in ‘good faith’. He lets everyone take control of him, such as Mary Elizabeth getting what she wants from him, Patrick taking advantage of him and letting his aunt ruin his childhood. Charlie gets bossed around in school and never shares is own opinions because they don 't matter to him. He never made his own choices in life, he always made sure that everyone else around him was happy. At parties he was played with and he had is innocence taken away. He never bothered with his own feelings, which makes him not live his own life. Because of this he lived in bad

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