The Wall

About the Album

Another literary example of mental illness is on the concept album The Wall by classic rock band Pink Floyd. The album follows Pink, the protagonist and anti-hero whose father is killed in battle during World War II. His mother becomes overprotective of him, and he experiences abuse from teachers. He later marries a woman, but his marriage is ruined by infidelity. This causes the character to build a metaphorical wall, and he shuts out everyone around him. He later finds himself lonely and plummets into depression, but he takes a needle to cure the depression, but he then suffers from hallucinations. This causes him to hallucinate that he is a fascist dictator while he is performing at his concert. He realizes he has become what has ultimately killed his father, begins to degrade himself. The album ends with Roger Waters’ monologue about social barriers and building up and taking down walls.

Based on the events in the album, the listener can tell that Pink clearly suffers from depression and social anxiety. This all comes from outside factors, such as the death of his father, the over-protection of his mother, the abuse of his teachers, and the infidelity that ends his marriage. The hurt he experienced from others as well as others sees him developing social anxiety, which is reinforced by his mother, and the loneliness causes him depression. He is eventually treated for depression with drugs injected into him by a needle which causes him to hallucinate that he is a fascist dictator. The drugs wear off, and he picks himself apart again, with his depressive ways rearing their ugly head again. Although mental illness is not portrayed as positively as it is in Furiously Happy, it teaches the listener that building this metaphorical wall will lead to nothing but loneliness and depression. Therefore, although it can be hard to trust others, it is important to open up to others to have companionship to avoid chronic loneliness.

Impact

The first time I ever listened to this album, I was extremely depressed. I did everything that Pink did. I shut others out because people have hurt me before, and I didn’t give anyone the opportunity to hurt me. I thought people were nothing but trouble, and they could do no good. There was no point in letting them in. In other words, I felt the exact same way Pink did. I should build a wall to keep everyone around me away from getting to know me. Like Furiously Happy, it gave me something to identify with, but in a different way. In Furiously Happy, I saw a real-life person experiencing mental illness and saw the difference of how she deals with it and how I deal with it. When I listened to The Wall, I saw what could happen if I did not let anyone get to know me. I still did not want human contact with anyone; at the same time, I wanted to find someone I could trust and let down my wall. Since overcoming depression and leaving Rowan and coming to Rutgers Camden, my social skills have gotten better, and I’ve learned to have intimate conversations with others, and find people I can really get to know me, but I know it’s not everyone. Therefore, I keep my wall up, but let it come down when necessary.

Values

Thus, the value that The Wall teaches is not to trust everyone because people can hurt you; at the same time, people have to learn to socialize to find intimate closeness so that they are not lonely. This process can prevent the onset of mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression so that people can feel they can trust one another so they feel that sense of companionship. Therefore, people must offer companionship in the best way possible so that others can feel comfortable around them, so they do not feel the need to build up walls. Everyone should be as supportive towards others as possible so that people can have faith in human kind so that they do not feel like the world is full of nothing but cruelty.

Significance to My Students

The Wall teaches people the importance of companionship to reduce that feeling of loneliness. It is very important for elementary school students to feel that sense of belonging with their peers so they do not develop that feeling of loneliness. That feeling of not fitting in with one’s peers can also cause mental illness later in life. Therefore, it is important for students to find friendship with their peers so they do not feel as if they do not belong. Furthermore, if a student’s peers or teachers are ridiculing him or her, that student could feel like they need to build a wall because he or she is not fitting in. It is important for teachers to create a friendly classroom environment in which students feel comfortable enough to tear down those walls. One of the factors that contributes to Pink building this wall is abusive teachers. To me, this shows the importance of the teacher creating a welcoming environment for students so that students don’t feel the need to build walls to keep their teachers away from them. If teachers ridicule their students, students will not want to learn. As Pink Floyd sings, “We don’t need no education”. Pink develops this opinion because of the abuse of his teachers, an opinion that is really not true because education helps us function in our environment based on the content we learn in the classroom and the values taught in the classroom. However, students can be lead to believe this false statement if their teachers and classmates don’t create a welcoming environment in which students don’t have to build walls.