Comparative Analysis

Sadness envelops people every day. When we feel depressed, we often feel like we have nobody to turn to when really, we are never alone. There will always be somebody out there willing to help you; you just need to find them. “Dream Run,” by Parkway Drive and “Not Alone” by Before Their Eyes polarize the darkness of life with the fact that you’ve gotta go and face it today, because you are never alone.

Each song has narrative influences where they tell stories of hardships and struggles. Parkway Drive sings “Dear girl, there is a world that stands between us and them/See this was never about giving up, just giving in.” The subject of the song has to fight against the whole (metaphorical) world to get to where she needs to be. When they speak of giving in, they are talking about how some people just succumb to the pressures around them for they do not have the strength to fight back. Similarly, Before Their Eyes says “Reality stung, the whiskey bottle was dry/ Daddy would scream,/ Cause he is diseased and haunted all the time,/ Big girls don't cry” The girl who is the subject here has a father who we presume is an alcoholic. She does not cry though and takes it. When they say that reality stung, this is personifying the idea of reality to be something that can hurt you, as opposed to an imagined happy time. The darker side of both songs is how people who face sadness often do not know where to go, and as said in “Dream Run”, “you only live once/ But you spend your whole life dying.” They are comparing how some do not take control of their lives and just waste them on sadness.

 Another, opposite idea, featured in these songs is that people must make that move to better their own lives, no matter how bad things appear. The tones of both songs imply that you need to live your life and face the hardships, and to not give in. In “Not Alone,” the singer says that “You’ve gotta stop running away…you’ve gotta break through, /make it on your own.” This uplifting and supportive tone and words let the subject know that they need to keep pushing forward and making the best of your life. In “Dream Run” it says “You're not alone/ You only live once/ So when it comes crashing, know you're not alone” Parkway Drive also uses this idea that you are not alone when bad things happen, but you need to take charge of them because you only have one life. Dream Run and Not Alone both talk about how you need to get over your struggles and fears and live your life, and how if you do that, there will always be somebody willing to help.

                The two songs both show how you are never alone in your struggles unless you choose to be.  They have parts that are in a narrative-like form to tell of problems that people face, and say that you need to fight back instead of giving in. Dream Run takes a slightly darker and less optimistic approach, however, where Not Alone is more positive. For each parallel in the songs there is also a difference, for they are not the same song. Not Alone has a much softer approach than Dream Run, yet they still manage to portray the same general idea.