Woman and Fancy

“Here’s your one chance Fancy” Reba McEntire’s song titled “Fancy” arouses interest in many people because poverty is such a popular issue in today’s society. As Reba states in line 1 “I remember it all very well lookin’ back it was the summer I turned eighteen” you can tell she is a young lady, and as you continue through the lyrics you acknowledge that “Fancy”, her mother, and young sibling live in a “rundown shack” and her father had left them. She continues to tell us that her mom buys her a dress and sends her out to the streets due to her being sick and the baby being hungry. Throughout the song her mother states, “Here’s your one chance Fancy don’t let me down” illustrating that there’s nothing her mom can do and that it’s all up to her to make it from here. In Reba McEntire’s song lyrics and video “fancy” deep tone, vivid imagery, and figurative language is used to illustrate a young girl growing up in poverty and make something of herself. Reba illustrates that Fancy is a young girl who is sent out to work through a form of prostitution to a make a better life for her family and herself. She illustrates by using deep tone throughout the lyrics. In line 25 Reba says, “She handed me a heart shaped locket that said to thine own self be true” and in the video she expresses how angry she is by ripping the necklace off her neck and throwing it on the ground. It can be inferred that she is angry about her mom putting her out on the streets. At this point she doesn’t understand how she could do this to a young girl who’s barely a woman. You can tell Reba is angry because why would she rip of something her mother gave her not knowing if this would be the last time she saw her. This deep tone she uses, which is illustrated as anger, is just one of the many that she illustrates throughout the lyrics of her song. Another example of the deep tone she uses is contained in lines 69-72. Here she talks about still being able to hear her mom’s voice and how desperate

Cited: Fancy. Screenplay by Bobby Gentry. Dir. And Prod. Reba McEntire and Jimmy Bowen.1991 Reba McEntire. “Fancy”