The first stanza in the song paints the bleak prison life in Texas, which continues today. the same thing everyday to eat, the same job that starts at dawn and ends at dusk, the same system that tells you when to eat, when to go to the bathroom - if you do anything to express your individuality you "get in trouble with the man".
Yet there is still somebody outside who cares, who wants "FREEDOM" for her man. Hope exists and there is proof. The Midnight Special.
The metaphorical significance of the Midnight Special in an existentialist view is great. There are not just physical prisons, there are prisons of the mind, of the soul. There is every kind of hell out there you can imagine and plenty you cannot. The train represents salvation, a HEAD ON endorsement that human life, as opposed to the life of an animal is worth it and that death is not the end.
I believe in the LeadBelly version Rosie dies, but he still refuses to lose faith. I assume Rosie is his wife.
The first stanza in the song paints the bleak prison life in Texas, which continues today. the same thing everyday to eat, the same job that starts at dawn and ends at dusk, the same system that tells you when to eat, when to go to the bathroom - if you do anything to express your individuality you "get in trouble with the man". Yet there is still somebody outside who cares, who wants "FREEDOM" for her man. Hope exists and there is proof. The Midnight Special. The metaphorical significance of the Midnight Special in an existentialist view is great. There are not just physical prisons, there are prisons of the mind, of the soul. There is every kind of hell out there you can imagine and plenty you cannot. The train represents salvation, a HEAD ON endorsement that human life, as opposed to the life of an animal is worth it and that death is not the end. I believe in the LeadBelly version Rosie dies, but he still refuses to lose faith. I assume Rosie is his wife.