The Wall - Is There Anybody in There?

Is there Anybody in There?

In the musical film, The Wall, Roger Waters and Pink Floyd portray the protagonist, Pink, as a man who is delving into the realm of insanity. Over the course of the movie, Pink slowly spirals downward and becomes more paranoid and schizophrenic. His hallucinations increase in both quantity and horror. However, Pink's fall into total insanity is mirrored by that of Chief Bromden in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Just like Pink, Bromden uses his "fog" to shelter him from society. While Pink uses his wall to dull the pains of life, Bromden hides in his fog to avoid "The Combine" that is out to get him. Throughout both of their journeys into insanity, many parallels can be seen. But the major parallels between the two characters consist in the atmosphere and environment that is set up by the horrors of insanity, and the fact that both characters use mental barriers to cope with their problems.

To demonstrate the state of mind that Pink now exists in, Waters uses vivid imagery of horrifying spectacles. One example of this imagery occurs when Pink is lying in the swimming pool of his hotel. Pink looks sad, but at the same time calm while he's lying there. This is in part due to the fact that water is meant to be a symbol of calmness and tranquility. However, the water quickly turns into blood and Pink begins to drown in the blood. The water has become corrupted, just like Pink's mind. The transformation of water into blood represents that Pink's mind is slowly degrading and losing its grip on reality. At this point in the movie, it appears that Pink is drowning in his insanity.

Further along in the movie, Pink has built up his mental wall so high that he is now trapped and cut off from the outside world. There has always been a theory that isolation will corrupt the mind and send it spiraling downward into a state of insanity. The horrors of this mental corruption are witnessed when Pink begins to pound on the wall that he has built. This feeling of horror and isolation is further increased by David Gilmour's sonic wizardry with his guitar and his effects. Gilmour utilizes an effect on his guitar that allows it to sound higher than a normal guitar through unconventional methods. Gilmour then uses this effect to create an intensely eerie sound while his synthesizers are providing a sufficiently isolated and ethereal atmosphere. Because of this Gilmour is able to project the feel to the audience that Pink is trapped within this realm of seclusion and insanity, and that if he stays here, only corruption and degradation will be there to greet him.

While The Wall is a brilliant story about a man delving in the depths of insanity, it shares many aspects with that of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. In this story, the protagonist, Chief Bromden is a patient who currently resides in a mental institution. Like Pink, Bromden has also become schizophrenic. Throughout the novel, Bromden is constantly commenting on the surroundings of the institute and how "The Combine" is always watching.