Halloween

Shabd Khalsa ENG 112-17 RR #4 03/20/06

If you don't know or care you'll be alright
I heard it's modern to be stupid
You don't need to talk to look good

This is the chorus from the song “Halloween,” by Matt Pond PA. Many of the group’s songs are culturally, or socially, driven. Though not in the way that Public Enemy or Bob Dylan might have been. PA is commenting on something less broad than politics or social change. The song is talking about individual life, in this case, a party, and why we might go to them, or why not. The chorus illustrates the feeling of disdain for superficiality in the song.
The narrator is telling a story and starts by describing a scene at, what seems like, a neighborhood house party. “Went to where the people were on Saturday night.” The first line gives an idea of fun, or of being care-free. The next line immediately changes that. “Seems like it always seems/Where I go I want to leave/I thought we were doing fine with our lives.” He seems to be questioning why he is there to begin with. He sounds as though he has been dragged to the party by somebody who did not feel that they were doing fine with their lives. “There are people who will tell you/There is always something better.” He is content and happy, but the people around him are not. At parties there is, more than likely, alcohol and people to get drunk with, and perhaps, to go home with. Is this an escape to fill in some void?
The chorus uses sarcasm in the first two lines to communicate what the narrator feels. “If you don't know or care you'll be alright/I heard it’s modern to be stupid.” He seems to care about whoever he is talking to because his words are curt but not harsh. He tells them that they do not need to talk, or act, stupidly, perhaps like a “bimbo”, to be attractive. This alludes to a female companion, which is later confirmed, because it is often the trend for younger girls to act air headed, or “cute”, to be unthreatening to men and their ego, or more precisely, libido. 
The narrator, once again, sounds like he does not want to hurt his friend. “I surprised myself as my mouth started speaking.” He felt so strongly about what he observed that he started to, to an extent, lecture his friend, referring to the chorus. “There is nothing left of my nerves.” He can not bare to sit in a house full of, what he deems, unconsciousness or falseness. “As I lean over to ask her.” The line tells you that his companion is a woman.
“Pardon the intrusion/ Could we leave before it gets bad?” He comes across as timid, again, but concerned. He doesn’t want to remain in a place where people are getting more and more lost. It is affecting his contentment with life. The next lines produce emotion through action and imagery. “I might smash up all these windows/

And set fire to the curtains/Until it goes on and eats it with its blue and red orange/ Until the fire burns and eats it with its blue and red orange.” Smash, set fire, burns. The words emote aggression as well do the colors of blue, red, and orange: The colors of fire. He repeats the last line twice, emphasizing the fire. In certain schools of thought, or philosophies, fire is seen as a purifier. In Hinduism it is used in Yagna, a prayer that is held around a fire, to purify the soul and help realize God, or become God-conscious. In Christianity, fire is what greets those who end up in hell for bad deeds. Perhaps the narrator sees this party as a living hell and wants too purify it. He wants to help his companion elevate her consciousness.