Jeremy By Pearl Jam Doesnt Just Sound

Good Essay, Research Paper

“Daddy didn’t give affection and the boy was something that Mommy wouldn’t wear”.

Child abuse is something that can be considerably harmful on a child and among these forms of child abuse comes the issue of child neglect, child neglect can cause children to become socially challenged, angry and even abusive themselves. The song Jeremy by Pearl Jam talks about this form of abuse and tells a story of child neglect and its affects on a boy named Jeremy and his experience with neglect. “King Jeremy the wicked Ruled his world”.

The first stanza of the song is imagery of a boy at home drawing a picture of him standing on top of a mountain on a nice day. The boy appears to have accomplished something good. “At home drawing pictures of mountaintops with him on top lemin yellow sun arms raised in a V”. Until the next line when it foreshadows a terrible happening. ” Dead lay in pools of maroon below ” This is where the story turns into a relatively unhappy situation. Jeremy lives in a house where his dad either doesn’t have time, or doesn’t care about his son, and his mom doesn’t care and is simply ashamed of the child. “Daddy didn’t give attention to the fact that mommy didn’t care”

Child neglect can also cause a child to become a social outcast, it will force a child to believe that no one cares about him and cause him to live in “a bubble” away from the outside world ” King Jeremy the wicked ruled his world”. Jeremy reacted to his neglect by becoming quiet. The chorus is a repetition of the understatement “Jeremy spoke in class today” this refers to how quiet Jeremy was and that him speaking in class was something that was uncommon. This is great piece of understatement because it doesn’t actually state what Jeremy spoke about that day; it leaves it to the reader’s thoughts.

Anger is a very common emotion that is associated with child neglect and it is spoken about in the second stanza after the chorus. Neglect turned this innocent little boy into an angry “lion”. His anger was “unleashed” in a powerful burst. When he was picked on one day. “Clearly I remember picking on the boy seemed a harmless little fuck but we unleashed a lion”. Then it talks about the foreshadowed “accomplishment” where Jeremy himself becomes abusive and takes his anger out on others. “Gnashed his teeth, bit the recess ladies breast how could I forget he hit me with a surprise left my jaw left hurtin…dropped wide open”.

What Jeremy was drawing was not the typical “sunny day” drawing, he was drawing what he wanted to do to all the people that have picked on him and ignored him. He wanted to “rule his world”. Child neglect is still a big problem and is being looked at by a number of welfare groups. This song is a great summary of the effects of child neglect and should be seen for it well written lyrics. Child neglect is not and should not be something that can be easily forgotten and erased, “Try to forget this try to erase this From the blackboard.