[Students Last Name]1 David Champoux Wern English 101 30 March 2014 An analysis of the album Toxicity by System

Of a Down The album Toxicity by System Of a Down written in 2001. This album is about police brutality and the power of the youth being able to change these problems, The United States failing prison system and the destruction of nature. This Album uses powerful imagery and metaphors to bring their points across. This album is about decaying of the world. The major songs that talk about these problems are Deer Dance, Prison Song and Atwa. The song Deer Dance on this album talks about police brutality and how the youth may have the power to change it. It uses powerful imagery to show us the threat of police brutality with lines like Battalions of riot police With rubber bullet kisses creates an image of a horde of police crashing down on protesters and firing at them trying to disperse them. It also talk about how we cant be neutral on this problem using a metaphor of a moving train We can't afford to be neutral on a moving train It uses the imagery of a smiling child and how that it holds power and that one day it could help us overcome. It paints the police as fierce warriors attacking a peaceful people A deer dance, invitation to peace War staring you in the face, dressed in black With a helmet, fierce Deer usually pictured as a peaceful creature and not a creature to harm another is used to represent the peaceful protester and how the police will violently break up even a peaceful protest by painting them as warlike. This song shows and talks about how our police the people we rely on to serve and protect us are being used as tools of the government to control our free speech. The song Prison song uses statistics and imagery to evoke emotions and provoke thinking. It talks about how our current prison and justice system are ineffective. It also talks about how we waste our tax money on minor offender and also uses it for police to crack down

[Students Last Name]2 on these minor offenders All our taxes paying for your wars against the new non-rich, minor drug offenders fill your prisons you dont even flinch. It also uses statistics like The percentage of Americans in the prison system, prison system Prison system, has doubled since 1985 This is meant to show the ineffectiveness of the prisons and how minor offenders fill them. It also talks about the government in the drug trade and how it is used to buy out different countrys dictator and use it to the governments profits. It also talking about abolishing the minimum sentences for minor crimes to try and lower the amount of the people in the prison system and they also bring up research saying that drug policys work better when they focus more on the treatment then on the punishment. I chose this song apart from the others to show how our fundamental of justice in our society are failing us. The song Atwa is a song about how we have lost touch with nature(and on Charles Manson). This song uses much less imagery than the other songs in this paper relying more on word play to get its message across. It uses lines like All the world I've seen before me passing
Silent my voice, I've got no choice to show how the nature isnt capable of defending its self and

that it just has to take what we do to it. It also shows how we have surpassed the point where we are ruled by nature. The song also brings up the point that we have really have stopped caring about how we treat the world and how we are taking up the resources faster than the earth a can replenish them. It also interestingly enough this song is said to have connections to Charles Manson Using his quote I am not myself. Im merely a reflection of you- you are me. Manson and this is the songs Hey you, are me, not so pretty, All the world I've seen before me passing by, Silent my voice, I've got no choice All the world I've seen before me passing by they seem fairly similar and Atwa is the name of his anti-pollution group but this is much more apparent and I wanted to dig a little deeper into the song and how it talks about how we have abandoned the earth and have poisoned and destroyed it. In conclusion this album is about the decay of the nature and society. It talks about how our way of deterring and punishing crime is failing, how we have turned our backs on nature and

[Students Last Name]3 force our destructive ways on to it. The reason why we should take a closer look at this album is because it was very controversial when it came out. It still climbed to the top of the charts though at one point this album was number one on the billboard charts. It is something that could have really influenced the culture. Then a few months later the tragedies of nine eleven happened this sadly followed with a fear of most things Middle Eastern so it was pulled from the air for a few months possibly due to their Middle Eastern heritage. I think its important to think of this album this way because it talked about issues very really addressed in mainstream music. Sadly though this album lost a lot of political momentum in post nine eleven United States. The loss of momentum though could also be attributed to a article that Serj (the lead vocalist) posted the day after nine eleven. But even with all the controversies that surrounds this album and the artist this album still brought up points that should be looked at and rarely are. I wish more albums like this would become mainstream and maybe we would have a more aware culture.