Concrete Angel
Click here to go to the lyrics to Concrete Angel
| In Martina McBride's song, Concrete Angel, we see hear the story of a young girl who is suffering from the physical abuse that her mother causes her, and the bullying that she endures at school. This goes on to speak about how people suspect the abuse but no one saves her from her mother's hands until it is too late and she has died from the abuse. (Wikipedia) This song also represents Grimshaw's idea of conflict in songs. The conflict seen in this song is the individual versus society. (Grimshaw, 97)
The religious tones are first and foremost seen in the title of the song. The referral to an angelic figure sets the listener into a religious frame of mind. As the song begins, the listener can hear the line: "Sometimes she wishes she was never born" |
This line suggests that she may very well be praying to God and asking him why he would subject her to a punishment such as this, or why he would let her be born into a life that would cause her this much pain. It is suggested by MacKenzie that helplessness is met by the hope that God does have a higher plan for putting us through these things, and in this case it could be suggested that God realized that this was too much for a child of her age so he took her out of the misery that she would be in from these actions of her mother's. (MacKenzie, 477)
A few lines later the chorus begins and the audience hears these lines:
"Through the wind and the rain/she stands hard
as a stone/in a world that she can't rise above/
But her dreams give her wings/and she flies to
a place where she's loved/Concrete Angel"
In these lines we see the little girl dreaming of taking on angelic qualities herself as she flies to a place where she's loved. Based on the other religious aspects of this song, it leads the audience to believe that this little child is dreaming of going to heaven to be in the endless love of God.
In the second verse we learn that she is "a fragile soul caught in the hands of fate." This leads us to believe that God is taking this child's destiny into his hands, to bring her to a better place, and this thought is even more relevant after hearing the next line of "when morning comes it'll be too late." From this we believe that God has heard this young girl's prayers and brings her to the place where she will be loved.
Finally, in the last verse of this song not only is Grossman's point correct here, where the final scene takes place in a religious space, we find a description of the young girl's grave in a graveyard. She is commemorated with an angel statue that could be a representation of her dreams for so long that finally came true when she was saved from the pain of being on this earth.
In this song I believe that the link between religion and death is clear, because while this young girl is pleading to be saved from the horrible life that she is living, her prayers are finally answered and she gets to fly away from all the pain of her mortal life to live on in immortality somewhere that she is loved unconditionally. The use of the angelic imagery adds into the religious tones of the song and allows the audience to feel the faith that this young girl has, that finally allows her to be saved from the sins of others.
A few lines later the chorus begins and the audience hears these lines:
"Through the wind and the rain/she stands hard
as a stone/in a world that she can't rise above/
But her dreams give her wings/and she flies to
a place where she's loved/Concrete Angel"
In these lines we see the little girl dreaming of taking on angelic qualities herself as she flies to a place where she's loved. Based on the other religious aspects of this song, it leads the audience to believe that this little child is dreaming of going to heaven to be in the endless love of God.
In the second verse we learn that she is "a fragile soul caught in the hands of fate." This leads us to believe that God is taking this child's destiny into his hands, to bring her to a better place, and this thought is even more relevant after hearing the next line of "when morning comes it'll be too late." From this we believe that God has heard this young girl's prayers and brings her to the place where she will be loved.
Finally, in the last verse of this song not only is Grossman's point correct here, where the final scene takes place in a religious space, we find a description of the young girl's grave in a graveyard. She is commemorated with an angel statue that could be a representation of her dreams for so long that finally came true when she was saved from the pain of being on this earth.
In this song I believe that the link between religion and death is clear, because while this young girl is pleading to be saved from the horrible life that she is living, her prayers are finally answered and she gets to fly away from all the pain of her mortal life to live on in immortality somewhere that she is loved unconditionally. The use of the angelic imagery adds into the religious tones of the song and allows the audience to feel the faith that this young girl has, that finally allows her to be saved from the sins of others.