Comparison of John Lennon and Paul McCartney to Eleanor Rigby and Father McKenzie
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
In the Beatle's song "Eleanor Rigby" the writers, Paul McCartney and John Lennon are telling a story of a woman and man whose lives have been lived with the sole purpose of helping others with no reward or real satisfaction ever coming to them from the people that they strived to please and help. This would be the summation to the story that they, Paul McCartney and John Lennon, would like for the audience to notice. The real idea behind this story is that Lennon and McCartney are exposing themselves in the forms of Eleanor Rigby and Father McKenzie, in the sense that Lennon mirrors Eleanor and McCartney mirrors Father McKenzie.
Paul McCartney had many hardships fall upon him early in his youth. One that probably affected him the most was the loss of his mother at age thirteen, a very important time in the development of a young man. "Paul's mother was a midwife and died of breast cancer in 1955. Her death deeply hurt Paul" (Paul 1). The guise of Father McKenzie is set into motion at this time with the obvious questioning of God. When a tragedy of this magnitude comes about, the rewards for following God and giving of oneself, such as a midwife would, can be questioned. "Father McKenzie, Wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave, No one was saved" (McCartney and Lennon 26-28)...