Jeremy

 Jeremy is a song by Pearl Jam. This is my reading of the song, nothing more, nothing less! ☺

The song starts with Jeremy in a place he calls home. This location has nothing warm and cozy, nothing truly familiar, nothing really appealing to him. All he wants is to escape from this environment. In his locked room, he starts drawing pictures of mountains tops, those far away places where he could possibly feel happy, and be strong. In those remote places he could be himself, not (a) nobody, but somebody, a different person.

His arms raised in a V are nothing but a loud attempt to grasp the sky, the limit, a strong image of the ultimate freedom. His arms are expressing what his words are unable to say, are reaching for attention. He can’t escape from this world without making one last try to stop all this pain he feels inside. So he’s sending out desperate signals to a world that never had or wanted him.

Death is following him everywhere: at home, in his drawings, but more than anywhere else, dead is in his mind and in his heart. The dominating color of his world is not black, is not grey, but maroon, a dark tone of red. I couldn’t help but wonder why maroon and not any other color. Is he seeing blood all around him? Is that his own blood, a metaphor for all the pain he’s constantly going through, or is that the blood that will fall when he commits suicide? Is he referring to the wound that’s bleeding deep inside him or is he foreseeing his own death?

Maroon can also stay for a descendent of a runaway slave. Is he a prisoner in this life? Is he trying to run away? Is that the reason why he’s drawing mountain tops that could take him closer, at least as a mental illusion, to the sky? Is thus suicide the only way to escape or to regain freedom?

The realization that the sun he puts in his drawings is not yellow, but lemon yellow, makes his pictures even sadder. The yellow sun should have stood for sunshine or happiness. But not even the sun makes his heart rejoice; the sun is not bringing him warmth, but more lemony taste, bitterness. His mommy never cared. The use of the affectionate word mommy for the mother that was never his mother, emphasizes the emptiness of his existence. Daddy (the word is used for the same artistic purpose) never gave attention. So little Jeremy had to build his own world, had to be strong and become the king, ironically, again, of his own world, of his own person.

At home Jeremy is quiet. He speaks through his drawings, but nobody is there to see them. Why is he the wicked one? Is it because he is different? Is it because he feels the world in a very intense way? At school he is misunderstood. He needs to communicate but his connections with the world surrounding him are altered by the lack of affection and the lack of care that damaged his mind and heart. That is why he bits the recess lady’s breast. He has never had a normal, natural relationship with his mom. Was he physically aggressed or just emotionally tortured? His natural reaction is to bite, not to love, not to express affection, since he has always been deprived of those manifestations.

One day the voice in his head, yeah that voice of truth, of reality was just too loud. And he couldn’t stop it, so he just had to stop the pain. He spoke up for the first time. So sad, he spoke up, for the last time too. This is the reality Jeremy tries to get rid of.

Like in the Greek tragedy, a member of the community, accompanied by a chorus, is telling the story. The cathartic purpose is noticeable, since so many others can reflect themselves in Jeremy’s pain.