Preview

Tom Petty's Poem 'Into The Great Wide Open'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
462 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Tom Petty's Poem 'Into The Great Wide Open'
Imaging just graduating from high school, and moved to Hollywood to try and pursue a music career. This is what a character by the name of Eddie from Tom Petty’s song “Into the Great Wide Open” did. In this poem, Eddie has just finished high school and moves to Hollywood, gets a tattoo, a girlfriend, and a job as a bouncer at a nightclub. “Into the Great Wide Open,” a narrative poem by Tom Petty, that tells a story about a guy with a dream of hitting it big, using a shifting tone in a somewhat unrealistic fashion. The narrative pome, “Into the Great Wide Open” involves Eddie’s desires of being famous, and having great fortune. Eddie had just finished high school, and moved to Hollywood. When he got to Holly Wood, it wasn’t long until he found a girl, and got an apartment with her. He got a job as a bouncer at a nightclub, and his girlfriend also taught him to play guitar. He got a tattoo, and was very rebellious. …show more content…
The tone in the beginning of the song is quite optimistic. Eddie got a job as a bouncer, had a house, a girlfriend, life was going great for him. However, the song takes an unexpected turn and is also quite pessimistic near the end. Eddie made a record, but the A&R Man tells him he doesn’t hear a single. He also started to party a whole lot, and lost focus of what’s really important to him. Finally, Tom Petty’s “Into the Great Wide Open” was a somewhat unbelievable tale of Eddie’s fallen desires. “Into the Great Wide Open” by Tom Petty is somewhat unbelievable, because there are a lot of events taking place, and some don’t make sense within the th frames. Eddie graduates high school and leaves home to move to Hollywood. He meets a girl, gets an apartment with her, and then starts to learn guitar. After a short few months, he makes a record, and that record hits the charts. Shortly after that he starts partying with movie

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    When Eddie meets his third person, Ruby, he was told the story of how his father died. He was told that his father died saving Mickey. Mickey was one of Eddie’s father’s close friends. When Eddie’s father arrived home and saw Mickey with his wife, his intention was to hurt him, but when Mickey was found in the ocean unconscious with foam coming out of his mouth, Eddie’s father rescued him. After Eddie heard this he said, “Everything he thought he’d know about his father, he didn’t seem to know anymore” (Albom 136). Eddie’s whole life he viewed his father as an abusive drunk, but hearing how he rescued Mickey, his attitude towards him changed. Eddie no longer resented his father. He now had respect for him for his heroic actions. After hearing Eddie’s father's story, Eddie’s relationship had a positive change. He was able to find closure with his father. Considering he was Eddie’s father, Eddie always wanted to see the best in him. Albom developed that although Eddie’s father was mean to Eddie throughout his life, even the smallest amount of hope that his father was an acceptable person completely changed how Eddie viewed him. This shows how relationships are all connected because Eddie’s short interaction with Ruby changed his relationship with his…

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The sky was the limit” This is a quote taken from Tom Petty’s Into the Great Wide Open.…

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Eddie Adams Shipway

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages

    He brought many ugly truths of the world to life with his photographs. His pictures evoke an array of emotions, anywhere between sorrow and pain to joy and happiness. This is why i think that Eddie’s work is so…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eddie Bocanegra in another former gang member in Cease Fire. Being a former gang member doesn’t make Eddie different from the group, but what he did in the gang is what makes him different. With Eddie’s past life, he has robbed many vehicles and has served 14 years; over half of his life in prison, it has lead him to who he is now. He wants his community to be safer and more secure for everyone. With Cease Fire, he not only wants to stop shootings, but also wants to stop those people that were going to start a shooting from ever shooting again. He is not concentrating on himself anymore and prefers to take all the negativity from his life to help others create a positive outcome for their future. There are emotional shots where Eddie is tearing…

    • 414 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ruby Bridge Analysis

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When Eddie was a child, he played at Ruby Pier every day with his older brother and friends. He began working there as a teenager under the supervision of his father. After he returned from his stint in the army he resumed his life at the pier.His father died and he had to support his mother and give up his dreams of becoming an engineer.…

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout many Mississippi Delta blues songs there are considerable references of the crossroads and Legba, or the Devil. Robert Johnson’s “Crossroad blues” has been analysed over many years under the belief that the song describes his dealing with the crossroads and Legba in exchange for his newfound guitar talent in which he allegedly sold his soul. However, whilst Robert Johnson never stated that he sold his soul, another Delta bluesman, Tommy Johnson (No relation) claimed the legend to be true. Tommy Johnson claims he came back as a “bad man” in which Robert was a very different man than who he was prior to his disappearance into the Mississippi. The song’s meaning speculates many plausible explanations amongst historians as well as capturing…

    • 241 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Atlas Shrugged Sparknotes

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages

    His first introduction to the reader, when Eddie tries consult him, is a harsh, “Don’t bother me, don’t bother me, don’t bother me”. Not even wanting to know if Eddie carries imperative news, James shuts his ears from reality, emotionally unable to handle what is needed to be done. By blanking out of existence, James cannot handle stress in any part of his life. Although James does not know what message Eddie offers, he know that Eddie brings a message of reality, which will present reality which will…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tom Brennan Journey

    • 1216 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This song gives the story of one young man who through the outbreak of war takes a new path which ultimately leads him to Vietnam fighting for his country. As is “the story of Tom Brennan” the main character experiences a fear of what lies ahead but rather than the clique fear of death and destruction which the character seems reasonably naive to it is rather a fear of the ramifications and aftermaths of an event that changes the young mans life for ever. “And I can still hear Frankie, lying screaming in the…

    • 1216 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Randall Jarrell, poet, critic, essayist, and former Poet Laureate of the United States, was born in 1914 in Nashville Tennessee and attended Vanderbilt University in that same city. There, Jarrell received his BA and MA studying under John Crowe Ransom and Robert Penn Warren. His poetry is influenced by W.H. Auden and Robert Frost and often uses what poets call “the common dialogue of Americans.” He passed away October 14th, 1965.…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The song starts out with a strang questioning of reality: “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, No escape from reality, Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see”. They first two lines are rhetorical questions. They help establish the state of mind needed in order to continue with the song. The third line is a metaphor. It means everything is crashing down on him, and he cannot escape it. It seems to conclude that he is caught between a dream and awakening. The next couple set of lines are being used as transitions into the main part of stanza one, “I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy, Because I’m easy come, easy go, Little high, little low, Any way the wind blows, Doesn’t really matter to me, to me”. In the third and fourth line repetition is used in order to keep the lyrics flowing. The boy thinks his life doesn’t matter to anyone, his life is meaningless and the Earth does not care what happens to him. He does not care what happens next, he just wants it over; “any way the wind blows” him, he will go and it “doesn’t really matter” to him anymore. The next three lines show intent to kill by the boy, “Mama, just killed a man, Put a gun against his head, Pulled my trigger, now he’s dead”. The boy has finally come to terms of what he has…

    • 1458 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eddie father was a drunk and not caring towards Eddie and his brother Joe. Eventually Eddie father passes away after getting pneumonia from saving his Mickey Shea, from drowning. Eddie learns that he couldn’t control the situation about his dad. Ruby forgave her husband because the burning of the pier is out of her control. Eddie got an understanding that forgiving someone can lead you to having a happy life like Ruby did. Eddie getting an understanding helped him in the stages of forgiving his…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    . This song is about someone having to live up to the expectations someone else wants for them. They are pressured into having to be exactly like that person. They are nonstop always being smothered, and absolutely hate the fact that they cannot be who they want to be. They eventually get tired of listening to him/her and start living to their own expectations.…

    • 397 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wild Oats by Philip Larkin

    • 1360 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The title of this poem is derived from the expression 'To sow your wild oats'. It was culturally accepted by men at the time, that before marriage, men would be allowed to indulge in many sexual relationships with many women. The reasoning behind this is that if a man is not able to sow his wild oats, he will become anxious during his married years and begin to cheat on his wife. This story is told by Larkin aged 40, when he is still unmarried, and in this poem, he looks back to is younger days when he was around 20 years old. The poem describes one of his relationships in which he failed miserably. 20 years on from this event, he still has photos from it, but not of the girl he had a relationship with, but of her prettier friend.…

    • 1360 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mabo

    • 813 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Firstly, Eddie has pulled over by the police while he is drunk on the road. Perhaps this is an event for him to stay calm and become more realistic. Although the police let him go, he is already humiliated by the police. After that, Eddie starts to dance the island dance. The dance is very significant. Although he suffered earlier racist treatment, this moment shows the audience that Eddie will not be beaten. He has pride in his soul, in his ancestry and his culture.…

    • 813 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The moon is shining in summer and it’s shining on the trees and grass. The Moon’s light is said to be silver and it looks…

    • 217 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays