really rough draft

Kristen Ott

Composition: pop Culture paper

Professor Thomas

29 October 2012

A soft side of Miranda; as shown in The House That Built Me

            “Up those stairs in that little back bedroom is where I did my homework and I learned to play guitar,” as Miranda Lambert sings these words you can take yourself back on that emotional journey to your childhood. Miranda Lamberts song, “The House that built me,” shows the importance of home and your childhood. Throughout the song you automatically place yourself in that time in your life and imagine the days and the home of your childhood. Having an image of home can be directly connected with who you grow up to be. This song is the perfect way to back up the saying “home is where the heart is.” Miranda’s song uses strong images, her relative past, and an important structure to get a message to her listeners.

            As you listen to the song Miranda creates a variety of images in your mind.  She uses strong words and imagery to evoke emotion and make it easier for the audience to relate to her song. She uses things like handprints on the front porch and the live oak in the front yard to show how every part of that house has memories and has affected her life in one way or another. Using so much imagery lets the audience picture things similar to those that took place in their own childhood and get more involved in the words. Having such strong imagery aids in making the song stronger by allowing the audience to feel as if they are part of the song or the scene and also influences inferential thinking.

            Just as portrayed by the images, this song has a very strong emotional pull. The first time Miranda heard this song it was on a CD being pitched to Blake. It came on and she immediately started to cry. She knew it was special the very first moment she heard it she said. Living in a little farmhouse as a young child connected Lambert to this song. Miranda lived in the same house all the way up to when she turned 14; her connection to this song is undeniable. Just as the song says, “And nail by nail and board by board Daddy gave life to mama's dream,” Miranda’s dad fixed up the house piece by piece as she grew up. To this day Miranda’s parents live right down the street from that same exact house. Having this background made the song so much closer to the heart for her and created the emotional aspect for the recording.

            The structure of “the house that built me” adds to the emotional value of this song. Throughout the song the course repeats several times making a point to explain over and over again the need to come back home to find the person you were. In Miranda’s song she uses her home figure and her identity. She talks about going back one more time just to take back the memories. In the song she portrays her home as becoming her self image in the future. “I thought if I could touch this place of feeling This brokenness inside me might start healing Out here it's like I'm someone else I thought that maybe I could find myself” and “You leave home, you move on And you do the best you can I got lost in this whole world And forgot who I am,” these two parts of the song exemplifies how much her home has shaped who she is now and without she lost herself and the only way to get back is to remember the “home” that’s made her who she is.

            After listening to this song and looking deeply into it I got out of it is the importance of home as a child. All aspects of this song show the struggle of child homelessness. Child Homelessness in amongst one of the largest social issues today. Children without homes suffer largely in the long run. Some children can’t even picture all of the images in Miranda’s song like the bedroom and the front porch. Homeless children are lacking all of these memories that she says formed her future.  Many homeless children grow up with no education and have a more chance of acting out as they grow up. Having a childhood home is very important not only for shaping the minds and morals of children but also it encases memories and sentimental value for the future.