Literary Critics: Where Is the Love Song

SONG’S LYRICS: WHERE IS THE LOVE What’s wrong with the world, mama People livin’ like they ain’t got no mamas I think the whole world addicted to the drama Only attracted to things that’ll bring you trauma Overseas, yeah, we try to stop terrorism But we still got terrorists here livin’ In the USA, the big CIA The Bloods and The Crips and the KKK But if you only have love for your own race Then you only leave space to discriminate And to discriminate only generates hate And when you hate then you’re bound to get irate, yeah Madness is what you demonstrate And that’s exactly how anger works and operates

Now, you gotta have love just to set it straight Take control of your mind and meditate Let your soul gravitate to the love, y’all, y’all People killin’, people dyin’ Children hurt can you hear them cryin’? Can you practice what you preach? And would you turn the other cheek? Father, Father, Father help us Send us some guidance from above ‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’ Where is the love? (Love) Where is the love? (The love) Where is the love? (The love) Where is the love? The love, the love It just ain’t the same, always unchanged New days are strange, is the world insane?

If love and peace is so strong Why are there pieces of love that don’t belong Nations droppin’ bombs Chemical gasses fillin’ lungs of little ones With the ongoin’ sufferin’ as the youth die young So ask yourself is the lovin’ really gone So I can ask myself really what is goin’ wrong In this world that we livin’ in people keep on givin’ in Makin’ wrong decisions, only visions of them dividends Not respectin’ each other, deny thy brother A war is goin’ on but the reason’s undercover The truth is kept secret, it’s swept under the rug If you never know truth then you never know love

Where’s the love, y’all, come on (I don’t know) Where’s the truth, y’all, come on (I don’t know) Where’s the love, y’all( come on yeah) People killin’, people dyin’ Children hurt and you hear them cryin’ Can you practice what you preach And would you turn the other cheek Father, Father, Father help us Send us some guidance from above ‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’ Where is the love (Love) Where is the love (The love) Where is the love (The love) Where is the love The love, the love I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder As I’m gettin’ older, y’all, people gets colder

Most of us only care about money makin’ Selfishness got us followin’ the wrong direction Wrong information always shown by the media Negative images, it’s the main criteria Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria Kids want to act like what they see in the cinema Yo’, whatever happened to the values of humanity Whatever happened to the fairness in equality Instead in spreading love we’re spreading animosity Lack of understanding, leading lives away from unity That’s the reason why sometimes I’m feelin’ under That’s the reason why sometimes I’m feelin’ down

There’s no wonder why sometimes I’m feelin’ under (so ask yourself) Gotta keep my faith alive till love is found Where is the love Where is the love Where is the love Where is the love Father, Father, Father help us Send us some guidance from above ‘Cause people got me, got me questionin’ Where is the love Sing with my ya’ll (one world, one world) We only got (one world, one world) That’s all we got (one world, one world) And somethin’s wrong wit it (yeah) Somethin’s wrong wit it (yeah) somethin’s wrong with the w-w-world (yeah) We only got (one world, one world) That’s all we got (one world, one world)

LITERARY ARGUMENTS This song was a very popular song which is being written by Ralph MacDonald (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. , 2011). This song composed of advices and lessons to the readers. Actually, the song’s title “Where is the Love? ” has describing the whole song’s meaning which is about the love. Love. What is exactly the meaning of the love itself, what are the values of love and does love’s existence is really important in human being’s life? Through this literary argument, all the questions will be answer and discuss. The song is exactly asking all the listeners where the love is.

This song tells us about what had happen to our world without love, what the world would turns without love. In the paragraph sixth of the song, at the second last and the last line of the lyrics, “Cause people got me, got me questionin, where is the love? ” indicates that the song main theme was the existence of the love. Nowadays, people have become loveless or selfish. Some of them are even being bias that only preferred their racist and discriminate others. This song also tells us about the disintegration of the societal values. This can be seen in the song’s lyric: “But if you only have love for your own race

Then you only leave space to discriminate And to discriminate only generates hate And when you hate then you’re bound to get irate, yeah” “As I’m gettin’ older, y’all, people gets colder Most of us only care about money makin’ Selfishness got us followin’ our wrong direction” From the lyrics, shows that nowadays human are lack of society’s values. Nowadays people have become so racism and the racism itself has been expressed out in a very violence ways. This song shows and refers to the fight against the racism. People are being killed and because of this decision, some people are being discriminate brutally.

There were always wars among the human themselves. The song itself was being agreed with the statement above which is being stated clearly in the paragraph five: “People killin’, people dyin’ Children hurt can you hear them cryin’? Can you practice what you preach? And would you turn the other cheek? ” Through the lyrics also revealed that we are only worrying about the condition of the other country without trying to fix or solve the problems. The lyrics above said that the children are being suffered and ignored. This shows the importance of the adult role in the society.

Adult should carry on the responsibility to teach, advised and take care to the youngsters. From the second last line of the lyrics, it means that actually the adult were the role model of others. If they are being well-mannered, they will pass the well behavior to the youngsters as they practicing what they have ever taught to others. There will be no mercy among humans. No people will help and be helped by others. All humans will become selfish without love. The main motive of this song is not to make us sad, mad or to persuade us to be bias but actually to open our eyes about the reality of the world that we lived right now.

This song actually asks us to love someone, not only as a lover, as a family’s member and friends but also to love all people even though we do not know them. We must become selfless as to love other people as well. This shows that love was very essential to human. Most of human nowadays turn their hearts away from those countries which do not have what they have. Those countries are being discriminate. People ignored others pain and they lived like there will be no ends for them and always continued to create more drama. If only we spent a minute a day to look toward the hurt, the world would change.

Not only that, the lyrics also mentioned that people nowadays are being materialistic as they grown older. Materialism is getting normal and common nowadays where people getting greedier and greedier. People were only thinking for making the money. As making the money is being the most important thing in their thought or mind right now. Thus, people becoming selfish. Another example of the greediness of the human also can be shown in the short story which is being written by Guy De Maupassant, “The Necklace”. This song mentioned that the kids nowadays are easily being influenced by the media through the lyrics: Wrong information always shown by the media Negative images, it’s the main criteria Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria Kids want to act like what they see in the cinema” This will lead to the increasing of the juvenile crime or others societal problems which will cause a lot of problems toward the country and the other citizens. It is also will contributes to the rising of the violence acts that bring harms to others. Therefore, it is important for the adults to be their guardian to show them the right way. Adults need to give them lessons as well as love.

As a conclusion, based on this argument, it shows that this song is clearly suggests that love is a very important value in the life of human being in order to create peace. According to Maria Popova, in her blog “Brain Picking” loved is being the theme of most literary works such as in poems, books, songs and novels. This is because; the literary works are one of the medium for us to express feelings, thought and experienced which can be used to stand justice. The question mark itself symbolized the title of the song, “Where is the Love”.

Another theme for this song is the searching for the answers. Whereas the lyrics composed of many questions that are actually the endless unanswered questions which only can be answered by the truth. REFERENCES Popova, M. (2011, April 18). Why We Love:5 Books on the Psychology of Love. Retrieved October 27, 2011, from Brain Pickings: http://www. brainpickings. org/index. php/2011/04/18/5-must-read-books-on-love/ Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (2011, May 23). Wikipedia: Where Is The Love. Retrieved October 27, 2011, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Where_is_the_love