Figurative Language: Heartless-Kanye West

I didnt choose Heartless personally, but I was a pretty big Kanye West fan at some point in time and I still appreciate the lyrical content of his music. Heartless is a good song choice for this particular assignment because of the figurative language, use of sound and theme.

Figurative language is language which creates pictures for the senses. Kanye's song exemplified this in many ways. This simple song is packed with metaphors, similes and even an allusion. Kanye says in the chorus "the coldest story every told", comparing it to every other story ever told. This could possibly be a hyperbole because he has no way of grasping every other story told to compare them with his own. The theme of the song, the idea that the woman is supposed to be heartless alone is a hyperbole. Obviously a living person can not literally be heartless. He also describes this woman as being "cold as the winter wind when it breeze, yo". This is considered a simile because he uses the word "as" to compare this woman with winter weather. There is only one allusion in this poem, allusion being a cross reference to another work of art. He states "how could you be so Dr. Evil"? This is a cross reference to the movie "Austin Powers".

As with the majority of other poems and songs which rhyme, this song contains alot more sound devices than figurative language. This song is full of end-rhymes, assonances and even internal-rhymes. One of my favorite assonance examples in this song is when Kanye says "you run and tell your friends that you're leavin me, they say that they don't see what you see in me". This is most definitely an assonance because he demonstrates a close juxtaposition of the 'e' vowel sound. There are a few parts that contain internal rhymes, "I know you can't believe, I could just leave it wrong". Believe and leave rhyme, but leave is in the middle of the following sentence.

The theme of this song seems to be quite apparent, as the song itself is pretty straight to the point. Kanye obviously is trying to convey how cold and careless this woman is with his feelings. The song gives off a lonely vibe, think along the lines of a cold winter night. Kanye does a nice job of giving the listener this vibe.

Heartless is aurally stimulating. It is a very simple song and beat, but the simple words carry great significance and meaning. I would reccommend it to pop, r & b and rap fiends alike. I might also suggest that one watches the music video as well, which is equally as interesting and visually stimulating in my personal opinion.