About the only thing I agree with is that it is an intricate song, with an underlying aura of sadness. But I think the interpretations are WAY more complicated than warranted.
Listen to it. I really think you are learning about a family, told by a brother about his very loved sister. That fits much more than a young lover or outsider. Brothers and sisters fight but still care for each other. And they might fight inside the family group, but still will stick together.
Taken at face value, you have a working class family that has produced a daughter capable of bettering her station in life. And her family desperately wants her to have that chance. I don't hear any "using her for the family's advantage". I hear, she has a chance to get out. Anything we can do to help her is a good thing. Her brother, as brothers do, thinks this is ridiculous and stupid and sneers, but doesn't really object.
The song has such obvious middle-class values! If you are female, you have got to have been told that boys could go into your room, but you had to leave the door open or unlatched so that no one would think you were messing around. And you would have gotten the lecture about what boys want - don't believe them. Once they get what they want they leave. You would have been taught manners - if you were unlucky you even got sent to a class on Saturday to learn them. And your friends and neighbors thought this was ridiculous, but you knew how to act like a lady.
One reason I think it is sad is that the entire family, brother included, knows that if they succeed in getting her out, they have lost her. But no one, except maybe her brother, questions the wisdom of this at all.
She learns well and marries "up". And for awhile it looks good. But in her new life she is a social-climbing gold digger and no one will let her forget it. The baby helps solidify her position, but doesn't help her fit in. Feelings of really awful insecurity and tentativeness. Her brother feels it because they are so close emotionally but cannot help support her. She has a very bleak future in front of her. Maybe her family realizes that the best she will be able to do is maintain, maybe her brother is the only one who sees that. It's like people who slowly fade away. Painful to watch happen to someone you love.
OK, that is what I get from the song. Feel free to chop it to pieces.
About the only thing I agree with is that it is an intricate song, with an underlying aura of sadness. But I think the interpretations are WAY more complicated than warranted.
Listen to it. I really think you are learning about a family, told by a brother about his very loved sister. That fits much more than a young lover or outsider. Brothers and sisters fight but still care for each other. And they might fight inside the family group, but still will stick together.
Taken at face value, you have a working class family that has produced a daughter capable of bettering her station in life. And her family desperately wants her to have that chance. I don't hear any "using her for the family's advantage". I hear, she has a chance to get out. Anything we can do to help her is a good thing. Her brother, as brothers do, thinks this is ridiculous and stupid and sneers, but doesn't really object.
The song has such obvious middle-class values! If you are female, you have got to have been told that boys could go into your room, but you had to leave the door open or unlatched so that no one would think you were messing around. And you would have gotten the lecture about what boys want - don't believe them. Once they get what they want they leave. You would have been taught manners - if you were unlucky you even got sent to a class on Saturday to learn them. And your friends and neighbors thought this was ridiculous, but you knew how to act like a lady.
One reason I think it is sad is that the entire family, brother included, knows that if they succeed in getting her out, they have lost her. But no one, except maybe her brother, questions the wisdom of this at all.
She learns well and marries "up". And for awhile it looks good. But in her new life she is a social-climbing gold digger and no one will let her forget it. The baby helps solidify her position, but doesn't help her fit in. Feelings of really awful insecurity and tentativeness. Her brother feels it because they are so close emotionally but cannot help support her. She has a very bleak future in front of her. Maybe her family realizes that the best she will be able to do is maintain, maybe her brother is the only one who sees that. It's like people who slowly fade away. Painful to watch happen to someone you love.
OK, that is what I get from the song. Feel free to chop it to pieces.