Sunday, October 29

Welcome To The Black Parade (again)

I know i already had above title but now i want to elaborated what is the story behind probably my favourite song from My Chemical Romance. In fact their whole album is telling a story of a man called "The Patient".

The starting part of the story starts with the song called "Mama". This song is written before his dying hours where he was writing the final letter to his mother. The "letter" described that both their relationship is very sour compared to the one he had with his father. It seems that the causes for their negative relationship started with a war that all men including the patient, were drafted into. He also acknowledged that he could had been a better son which made his mother realised that the war had changed him. His mother only responds to him is that if he would express all his love to her, she could forgive. However the patient feels that if she knew what he did during the war, she would never consider loving him again.

The next part of the story which is continue from the song "Famous Last Words" narrated the patient thoughts at the last moment before he died. After previously experiencing countless emotions such as fear, anger, regrets and depressions, he finally had a hope by saying "I'm not afraid to keep on living." He finds that the stress in his relationship had caused him is no longer worth it and he can survived without his mother. However if she would stay, he will forgive her and himself for everything in that relationship. His final words are "Nothing you could say could stop me from going home" seems to indicate that at his last moment before his death, he had found enlightenment or peace and no longer afraid of being dead. Which led us to the climax of the story as describe in "Welcome To The Black Parade".

After learning of his illness, reflecting on his life, and dealing with all the issues of mortality, the Patient's own mortality is quickly coming to an end. Here the Patient is drifting between life and death, and so death is coming for him in the form of his strongest memory. The Patient's fondest memory is of his father taking him to town as a boy to see a parade.

The Patient's father asks him as a boy "Son, when you grow up, would you be the savior of the broken, the beaten, and the damned?", perhaps preparing the Patient for his future illness, and asking him if he will have what it takes to mentally overcome it and be an example for others who follow in his footsteps to be strong. The Patient's father also tells him "someday I'll leave you a phantom, to lead you in the summer, to join the Black Parade." This hints that the Patient's father most likely died before the Patient, and will help him join the Black Parade (in other words be there when he dies to help him in the afterlife). The song also shows that the Patient most likely had a very good relationship with his father, since his fondest memory in life occured when he was with his father.

The Patient passes into a realm of life and death, and sees the Black Parade. The Black Parade seems to take place in the city that he saw the marching band in his youth, only now the city is barren, and more macabre ("the bodies in the street"). He sees the performers of the Black Parade, only they too are more macabre than those of the parade he saw in his youth, and seem to represent emotions and other parts of his life. The Black Parade tell him of "the disappointed faces of your peers", which have no effect on the Patient, as he states he "could not care at all", showing he will no longer let anyone dictate his actions, and hasn't quite repented yet (as he does in Famous Last Words). He still doubts himself ("I'm just a man, I'm not a hero" in reference to his father's question at the beginning of the song). He is still firm in his doubt of the world ("you can try, you'll never break me"). Finally The Black Parade insures him that his "memory will carry on", and though he may be dead and defeated his "weary widow marches on." Thus trying to encourage him that he isn't as evil as he thinks, and that if he joins them all that he leaves behind in life will be fine.