All alone, or in two's,
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand.
And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall.
"Isn't this where...."
By-Pink Floyd
Analysis of this song :
Each image is a mere flash in a seemingly endless barrage of injuries, all of which fade to reveal Pink's enormous wall spanning the entire screen. It finally explodes over Pink's screams (of pain? Triumph? Both, in the realization of his freedom and vulnerability?), with the bricks tumbling through the air before the screen is obscured by clouds of white dust.
Although one could argue that this dust, similar to the white fog into which the soldiers march in "the Thin Ice," symbolizes Pink's death at the collapse of his massive creation, I tend to view it in a more positive light. The color white, usually a symbol of innocence and truth, coupled with the subsequent fade to the children in "Outside the Wall," leads one to believe that the dust is Pink's enlightenment and the purity regained through the destruction of the wall. After a life filled with oppression and corruption, Pink has finally been reborn.
While Pink was born into the world in "In the Flesh?" and continually born into new incarnations throughout the album, the destruction of his wall marks his true rebirth into life. Though he is now more vulnerable to the pains of life, he is also more susceptible to life's pleasures, allowing him to truly connect with his emotions, his loved ones, and the world. As Pink's story
attests, the wall-like defense mechanisms are in reality more oppressive than protective, replacing humility and understanding with egoism and decay. And though the world remains imperfect despite one man's enlightening journey, the destruction of this one wall removes yet another brick from the larger wall of humanity. The destruction of this one wall becomes another broken link in the vicious, circular chain of oppression and violence. With enough bricks and links gone, the social wall of prejudice will collapse and the circuitous cycle of injustice will be broken.
