No two journeys are alike, because the knowledge and experiences gained differ for each person. One of the texts I have chosen to study is the song Drops of Jupiter written my Pat Nonhuman, performed by Train. The song is about a dream that the writer had about his mother who had recently passed. The line ‘She’s back in the atmosphere’ was the first line written, and led to him writing the song as an extended metaphor of his mothers journey in the afterlife, and the return of her spirit to him. The inner journey is his own in the way of his journey to deal with grief.
He is challenges the notion that the afterlife is a different adventure with his belief that the passed never truly leave us, and that they remain with us in spirit. The lyrics feature an extended metaphor, where the universe is the afterlife, and he is asking his mother about her visit. The verse ‘Now that she back in the atmosphere, with drops of Jupiter in her hair,’ shows the metaphor of his mothers death being a temporary journey to the heavens, and has returned with ‘drops of Jupiter in her hair,’ as proof of where she has been. The simile used is also comparing her to the beauty of nature. She acts like summer and walks like rain.. ‘ Since the return of her spirit, he can feel her in the air and the nature. He can sense her everywhere around him. Another technique that Monahan used to express the concept of journey was repetition. The constant repetition of the words ‘Tell me’ helps to embed the idea of his mother returning to his life as a spirit, and she is sharing her experiences with him. In the text, it is evident that he is worried his mother has forgotten about him, and moved on. This is expressed using poetic devices in the line ‘I’m afraid she might think of me as plain old Jane,’.
Plain old Jane is an idiom which means someone boring and ordinary. He admits his fear of his mother forgetting him. Through the song, he realized that the best thing you can do about loss of love is find yourself through it. His personal experience was finding a way to deal with death, and that separates him from others facing similar losses. Through his inner journey of dealing with grief, he has learnt a new perspective on death and the afterlife, which is unique to his voyage of self-discovery. No two journeys are alike, because the knowledge and experiences gained differ for each person.