" Burden in My Hand" by Soundgarden SA1(irony/kefor)



Album



            People can be shallow and superficial. They can only like a person for the fame and money, and would do anything, even affecting their health, for it. In “Burden in My Hand,” Soundgarden portrays abusive irony, blatant imagery, and intense understatement to show that some people will stay by you only because of your social status, even if they are getting abused, and will ultimately become a “Burden in My Hand.”

Soundgarden uses a lot of irony throughout this song to convey a message. It’s ironic how people who thought you were an outcast at some point come back into your life when you are successful. Now, I’m not saying that this was the case in this song, but to some aspect it is. A girl follows this man around because of his success, and he starts to lose his mind. The song starts off by having the man asking the girl to follow him “into the desert, as thirsty as you are”. It’s ironic because someone who is thirsty would normally not go into one of the hottest places where there is little to no water. This shows that the man has control over this woman because she is blinded by all of his success. He later goes on saying that the “truth is lying, beneath the riverbed” which conveys the message that whatever is down there, the truth will not be revealed. It also holds a pun with the meaning of lying being both the opposite in truth and where something stands. The man abuses the girl, “I lost my head again, would you lie for me”, and the girl acts like it is okay. She defends him when a source of authority, such as police, show up. The woman is too caught up in who he is and the money, that she is defending him for abusing her; which is pretty ironic. This girl is superficial and a burden to this man. With the Soundgarden writing with abusive irony, we are able to get a better sense with the imagery they portray through it.

The setting of this song is in a desert, where the man reveals how he feels about this girl; like he owns her:     
 “Follow me into the desert

  As thirsty as you are
  Crack a smile and cut your mouth

               And drown in alcohol
              Cause down below the truth is lying
              Beneath the riverbed”

This gives one the image of a desert, bare and hot, where a girl that is very thirsty has to go into. One also pictures a little water bed that is a ways down to get too. Her mouth is so dry that when she smiles her mouth cracks, and cuts form. The next line after that, although is imagery because one pictures someone drinking excessive amounts, it is also a hyperbole. One can take it literally and think someone is drowning is a big pool of alcohol. With the desert, one thinks of the being “Out in the sunshine” and here in the desert “the sun is mine”; where the sun is a symbol for the girl, and he owns the girl. With this imagery one can see that this man verbally and physically abused her, and she took this because she is superficial and he gets her everything. Soundgarden also uses intense understatement even though it is minimal. He is talking about how the woman will suffer with “just an anchor on my heart” and also “just a tumor in my head”.  Anchor will not actually be on his heart, but the weight of guilt will always be with you. Also “just a tumor in my head” will be her memory of him that will never go away and will eat at her for the rest of her life until she too is dead.

            Irony, imagery, and understatement are the main literary devices throughout this song, explaining that a man with a high social status abused a girl and got away with it because the girl was so caught up in the life of having superficial things. It talks about how the man basically owned her and could tell her to do anything and she would. She ultimately became a burden because she was always around, even when he didn’t want her. That is why he would lose his “head again”. “Burden in My Hand” had a message for people everywhere to not get caught up in the unimportant things in life, and to take charge of your own with full force, and to not let anyone degrade you.