This is the second essay I wrote, it's turned in already so it doesn't matter to me now It's long also 1,064 words

People have written songs about travel for thousands of years. Songs about traveling away from trouble are no different. “The Boxer” by Simon and Garfunkel, and “Wand’rin Star” performed by Lee Marvin are written about two different time periods, 100 plus years apart, but with the same concepts in mind, American dreams, and drive to roam freely, like the animals of the Plains. Both songs are melancholy and portray a drive for success that is fed by long-shot hopes and in the late night dark dreams, as with most dreams that are inspired by the thought of Americanism. The two songs are about men one of whom has worked all his life to stay aloft all the while being compared to a boxer, the other of a down to Earth miner who looks for gold. Because of their freedom to roam neither has ever experienced the stability of a real home and always a present feeling of loneness causing them to have a melancholy tone, from the experience of constantly traveling to stay ahead of trouble and in the case of “Wand’rin Star” stay ahead of people. Both of these songs use a comparison to something special either a boxer or a star. The reason for this is to express how they have lived their lives one compared to a star all alone in the sky traversing the galaxy, the other a boxer who never gives up.

Starting with the song “The Boxer” by Simon and Garfunkel, throughout the song there is no mention of the boxer until the very end. The lyric goes “In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade / And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down, Or cut him / 'til he cried out in his anger and his shame, (Pref. Simon and Garfunkel l. 23-27).The reason he compares the person in the song to a boxer is because he has been through trial and tribulation, and persevered until the end in a dream of being the best at what it is he does. He has experienced the good and the bad, and it shows through the wear and tear of his body, mentally; and his mental status from always being on the move. This notion of dreaming about being the best possible no matter what you have to overcome is a characteristic of American philosophy. The next thing that leads me to believe that the song is about travel is that he leaves his family, “When I left my home, I was no more than a boy / In the company of strangers / In the quiet of the railway station, runnin scared.”(Pref. Simon and Garfunkel l.5-7). He says that he leaves his home as a boy; he could be talking about a mental state because he may feel that he hadn’t finished maturing completely at the time. My reasoning for that is because he has a few thoughts that generally left to when you are young and still getting to understand the world. The loneliness of the song is visible in this phrase, “Just a comeon from the whores on 7th avenue / I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome / I took some comfort there” (Pref. Simon and Garfunkel l.12-14). As he grew he came to realize that there is a drive for people to be in the company of others. He just happened to find the presence of street walkers to be comforting in his time of need. This would fall into the statement about Americans being the dreamiest of the cultures; we believe that if we follow our dreams long enough that they will come true.

Wand’rin star is a about a man, who lives off the Miner’s law this means that he is constantly traveling to find not a job, but gold. It’s more of a harsh life, constantly on the move. This is also a song about leaving bad situations but I won’t go into that with great detail, the line that makes me think this is, “I have never seen a sight that didn’t look better looking back.”(Pref. Lee Marvin l.5). To me that means that as he has never really had a point to center himself he can’t compare the sight of leaving something to anything good, but then on the other side of that, it could be since he and his other mining partners used up all the resources in the area and there is nothing left, making it good that he is leaving. His claim for traveling is that he was born under a wandering star, and this makes him not able to have a steady home since he is connected to a star that is constantly moving and all alone in life. During the song he describes the feelings that you go through when you’re traveling the various areas of the country, “Mud can make you prisoner / And the Plains will bake you dry / And snow can burn your eyes.”(Pref. Lee Marvin l.7-10). This means that while traveling through the Plains of America where the landscape can go on for days with endless hours of daylight and no water available except for what you have, and how you can become blind from looking into the glare off the snow in the mountains. There is once more a relative point back to people and emotions. The reason for choosing these lines is because they show the true meaning of the American will to roam freely about like they have no responsibilities.

These two men have opposite ideas of being alone and traveling constantly. “The Boxer” tells of being travel as a lonely life and full of trouble, where as “Wand’rin Star” does not sugar coat it and say it is not the best thing in life, but if it keeps you out of trouble, and in work then it is great and must be done to enjoy life, however it takes a certain kind of person to be able to do it without having a home or love to go back to. The comparisons are that both men have experienced life and can give it to you in a matter of fact manner, and can explain to you how they were not the greatest people to do what they did and how they lived.

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