Ok, to me this song shows the evolution of a broken family. In the beginning they are a somewhat whole family. You can see that they are happy, but there is something missing, love. We can see that they have some kind of happiness from Vada because she has joy. Veronica is older and is simply living life, but is still missing love. That is why Dade is pondering what love really is, because he hasn't seen it in his parents relationship. At the end of each verse, except the third, their mother explains the same thing "Love is just a hoax and heaven's not a place where you go when you die, it's that moment when you actually feel alive." This shows that even though her and her lover are together, there is no love...she herself doesn't understand love.
The next section is after their father has left their mother. Veronica is turning to other men in her life to substitute the absence of her father. Vada has never had attention from anyone because of her sister Veronica or maybe just because she hasn't had a father in her life. This causes a confusion of character for Vada. Then there is Dade...pondering the same thing, what is love? But to add onto it...he has lost his father and has no idea what to do. He hears the same thing from his mother "love is not real".
The last verse is the most obvious and the saddest. Their mother is so lost in her emotions that first of all, she had not known how to be a mother in the first place, but now she is completely lost. I can imagine her as being one of those people who just shuts down. Well, this woman has 3 lost children who are trying to grow up on their own, but love is just a hoax...So...they all commit suicide. That is why they never lived past the age of 15. So now...everything that she told her Dade..told her Vada and Veronica..she realizes how wrong it was. She realizes that even though she did not have love from her "lover" their father, she had love for her children she had love from them...and she realizes herself that love is real, because you never know how much something means till its gone. This is the evolution of a set of relationships of hopelessness...it can be the average person at any point. When a person feels neglected and loses their touch on life. It's a pretty blatantly obvious song.
Ok, to me this song shows the evolution of a broken family. In the beginning they are a somewhat whole family. You can see that they are happy, but there is something missing, love. We can see that they have some kind of happiness from Vada because she has joy. Veronica is older and is simply living life, but is still missing love. That is why Dade is pondering what love really is, because he hasn't seen it in his parents relationship. At the end of each verse, except the third, their mother explains the same thing "Love is just a hoax and heaven's not a place where you go when you die, it's that moment when you actually feel alive." This shows that even though her and her lover are together, there is no love...she herself doesn't understand love. The next section is after their father has left their mother. Veronica is turning to other men in her life to substitute the absence of her father. Vada has never had attention from anyone because of her sister Veronica or maybe just because she hasn't had a father in her life. This causes a confusion of character for Vada. Then there is Dade...pondering the same thing, what is love? But to add onto it...he has lost his father and has no idea what to do. He hears the same thing from his mother "love is not real". The last verse is the most obvious and the saddest. Their mother is so lost in her emotions that first of all, she had not known how to be a mother in the first place, but now she is completely lost. I can imagine her as being one of those people who just shuts down. Well, this woman has 3 lost children who are trying to grow up on their own, but love is just a hoax...So...they all commit suicide. That is why they never lived past the age of 15. So now...everything that she told her Dade..told her Vada and Veronica..she realizes how wrong it was. She realizes that even though she did not have love from her "lover" their father, she had love for her children she had love from them...and she realizes herself that love is real, because you never know how much something means till its gone. This is the evolution of a set of relationships of hopelessness...it can be the average person at any point. When a person feels neglected and loses their touch on life. It's a pretty blatantly obvious song.