Narrative Paragraph

Autumn Leaves by Ed Sheeran is often associated with the theme of death, but it is presented in a peaceful and tender manner. Through the lyrics, he talks about life not being not complicated as in it begins and ends for everyone. The anaphora of ‘It’s not complicated’ is used to emphasise his point that the process of life is simple. The rhetorical question “do you ever wonder if the stars shine out for you?” suggests he is wondering whether someone is looking down on him from heaven. It would also make the listener debate the answer to themselves. The personal pronoun ‘you’ develops a personal relationship with the listener as they feel they are being addressed directly. Ed Sheeran uses autumn leaves as a metaphor for death. Autumn leaves are obviously dead leaves, falling from a tree.  The tree as an example for planet Earth and Autumn leaves for people. The person that passed away, unfortunately, is an Autumn leaf. “Another tear another cry” presents melancholic emotions – displays his emotional attachment to the person lost. The repetition of ‘another’ highlights the normality of death; lots of people are effected by the same thing and go through the same emotions. He later retracts himself as he now says death is complicated as the actual event of death can cause sadness and destruction, and can be completely unexpected. It makes it much harder to comprehend, thus making it more complicated. People realize that it actually is complicated when they lose someone and there is a gap in their life. “Is it that its over or do birds still sing for you?” suggests a reference to heaven. Birds are a symbolism of freedom and could be portraying that the person he is talking about is now free from pain and suffering. He repeats this message throughout, reinforcing his ideas and developing a personal relationship with the audience by allowing them to listen to his emotions.

 

In my music video I think I will incorporate a range of flashbacks, making it an episodic narrative, as I feel that this will allow the audience to see the performer’s relationship with the person that’s passed away. Goodwin’s theory states that the lyrics should match the visual so I will ensure that I achieve this by having the performance on screen toning the lyrics.