The Wall - Questionaire

1. The boy sees masks on the faces of the people in the train. Later he sees similar masks on the faces of the children in his fantasy. What is the meaning of that?

Both scenes intend to criticize the educational system at the time, this is one of the major themes of the movie. In these scenes, children are shown with heavily dysmorphic faces, with no recognizable features, as if they've been severely atrophied. This represents the educational system's opposition to "individuality", and how it indoctrinates children into being carbon copies of the "ideal citizen", unable to think for themselves.. They are given no chance of expression, and are ridiculed when they show signs of individuality (such as Pink writing poetry).

2. The riot scene ends and the camera returns to the boy in the classroom as the children recite the lesson. Think of a possible explanation for this.

Before the riot scene, the movie shows Pink’s displeasure with the educational system, “Another Brick in the Wall” is a critique of how violent the education process is. However, after this we see Pink and his classmates overthrowing their vile superiors, burning down the place they were indoctrinated at. They are, in a way, regaining control of their own lives, overtaking the system. Sadly, this is all just one of Pink's daydreams, there was never any riot, he is still just another part of the machine, there is nothing he can do to stop it.

3. What kind of education does the movie portray? Use the song “The happiest days of our lives” to help you

Education is a recurring theme in the movie, and one of its biggest targets for criticism. "The happiest days of our lives" tries to show how there is oppresion in every layer of the system, meaning that the oppressors were once the oppressed, and they continue to be oppressed throughout their lives by other people. We know the subject in mind are the oppressive teachers because of how it describes their behaviour, them trying to "hurt the children in any way they could". Then, these same teachers are shown to live miserably in oppressive households, and everybody knows it. This is shown in the last 3 lines of the song "When they got home at night, their fat and / Psychopathic wives would thrash them / Withing inches of their lives". The oppressors are also oppressed, and they take out their own frustration on their subjects, the children.

4. Education is only one of the various social institutions the movie deals with. What others did you notice and how are they portrayed?

Besides the educational system, the other social institution the movie deals with are family and the government, in that order. Pink's family life is turbulent to say the least. His father died during World War II, meaning that Pink's upbringing was entirely on his mother's hands. The song "Mother" explores the character of Pink's mother, and how her actions affected him in his life. The song portrays her as an overprotective guardian who, perhaps unconsciously, prevented him from expressing himself, making him afraid of the outside world, effectively putting all of her fears into him. While overprotective, she was also an absent mother who ignored her child's cries of help, meaning that during his childhood Pink did not feel affection, which is detrimental to anyone's mental stability.

The other social institution shown in this movie is government. In the larger picture, the government system has many parallels with the educational system. Thus, the scenes showing the educational system as an endoctrinating machine could also very well be a critique to the government, and how it uses education as a method of crowd control, eliminating individuality to maintain control of the masses.

5. We, in Argentina, often rely on education to solve most of our social problems. We blame education, or the lack of it, for many of them. Consider the huge success (described in the text below) of the song “Another brick in the wall” which claims “we don’t need no education” and compare it to what you think about education.

"Another brick in the wall" is Pink Floyd's most popular song, which sadly means that it often gets taken out of context by listeners. The song's message can't be completely understood when removed from it's source material, The Wall (the album). In contrary of popular opinion, the song is not against education, it does not thrive for the destruction of the learning process. The song attempts to criticize the oppressive nature of the educational system. The song, and the album itself, incentivizes rebellion against the oppressive forces which we are subjects to, and thrives for a more accepting society, one that treasures creativity and individuality. I believe that should be our objective as a society, and what we should expect of our educational system.

6. Up to what extent is education a way of “thought control”?

Education had changed several times during the history. I could have been harsh for some people, but lighter for others. I strongly believe that the thought control was a decision made by the teachers, and also consider social context. I am not against the fact that some teachers didn’t or don’t allow freedom into their classroom but nowadays this is not usually seen. It happened that teachers stated a strict view and policies to their students, without letting them to freely express: It may be considered as a way of brainwashing the kids and also control their thoughts. By so, the education would be seen as a jail of creativity. However, nowadays education got much better than years before. Today we can express freely in any way, and the schools also encourage the students to feel, learn and create without overpassing the barriers of “Do nothing”.

7. Explain the meaning of the double-hammer symbol. Use the scene “In the flesh” to answer.

A hammer could usually be shown as a symbol of fascism. The two hammers, during the movie were shown, in an ironic way, as the Nazi emblem, including the red and black colours in it. The scene “In the flesh” it's a full ironi that satirize Hitler, him being a fascist dictator.

 

8. The children falling into the meat grinder is a visual metaphor that makes a powerful point. What is the metaphor and what point does it make?

The whole meat grinder scene represents how Pink views the educational system. To the tune of "Another Brick in The Wall", arguably Pink Floyd's most celebrated opus, we see children being run through a machine, and being grinded into minced meat. This is a harsh critique of how the educational system treats children, as if they were cattle, or "unfinished products". During the process, they are robbed of their individuality and, eventually, they all are turned into the same meaty blob. In this form, the system can used the now indoctrinated children as it pleases.

9. What is the wall? Can you say whether it is a good thing or not?

Throughout the film, there are many ideas that can be attributed to the concept of “The Wall”, some are more literal, while others have a more metaphorical meaning. “Another Brick In the Wall” portrays the wall as the system itself, which we are a part of, perhaps unwillingly. As we are raised, we are molded into identical bricks which are used to build the wall, our lack of individuality obliges us to support the system. Destroying this oppressive system would be impossible without destroying ourselves in the process. The Wall could be a reference to the walls we build around ourselves. We isolate ourselves from the people around us through meaningless consumerism. The importance we give to these products results in us losing our empathy, losing our connection with the outside world, and dying alone on this side of the wall.