Through Lens of BTS and Edward Hopper: Exploring Loneliness
Edward Hopper was an American realist painter born in 1882 and died in 1962 in New York State (TheArtStory). He lived through the tumultuous times in which global society began to change its ideas and innovate rapidly. He witnessed the two World Wars, the Great Depression, and the Civil Rights Movement. Despite these times, his paintings tend to be quiet and reserved, matching his personality. He had a few friends and spent much of his time occupied with books and art (EdwardHopperWeebly). The central theme of his paintings are depictions of isolation and detachment from modern life. His work became popular during the Great Depression, when the United States was experiencing an economic slump.
Fast forward to today, we are experiencing changing times due to rapid innovations of technology and a virus that has changed how many of us live. BTS, a South Korean boy group, write music with their own philosophies, for example the Love Yourself trilogy gives a message to love oneself before loving others. In this article, I will be talking about a commonality between BTS and Edward Hopper: the theme of loneliness. Loneliness is an aspect of our lives we experience which can be divided into three categories: alienation, seeking comfort in isolation, and comradery. I will be exploring Hopper and BTS’ work in relation to loneliness in the hope it will break your perceptions of what it means to be lonely.
Alienation
House by the Railroad depicts a railroad trail that crosses horizontally across the frame and cuts off a portion of the Victorian house. Hopper does not show the Victorian house in full profile, leaving out details of the full-scale of the house such as its columns and windows. No matter how close you examine the painting, the railroad wall is impenetrable. This gives a sense of exclusion from you and the house. During the 1920s, American society began to change at a rapid pace to become more industrialized. This is referenced with a railroad, a symbol of industrialization at that time.
The Victorian house has circular arch mouldings across its top roof windows. It has flat-arched windows across below the roof windows. Additionally, it has a small entry porch with columns. These characteristics define “Second Empire” style house, popular in 1852–1890 with its origins being traced to Louvre and Francois Mansart during the reign of Louis XII in 17th century France (TheCottageDepot). Notably, this style of buildings became popular before the 1920s. Therefore, there is a clash between past and future with horizontal compositional dialogue between the house and the railroad, which creates alienation. Hopper sees alienation as a passage of time that makes this particular pair of objects that create a cacophony.
As opposed to Hopper, BTS sees alienation as being unable to communicate with others, like in “Whalien 52”. This song is based on a whale that calls at an unusual frequency of 52-hertz (Hz), as opposed to most whales such as the blue whale (10–39 Hz) and the fin whale (20Hz). Because of this, the whale has been described as the “world’s loneliest whale” (Wikipedia). In this song, BTS show whale’s loss of hope through these lyrics:
Mom said that the ocean is blue
She told me to raise my voice with all my strength to reach farther
But what should I do?
This place is too dark
And full of other whales that speak other languages
For the 52-hertz whale, the mother was someone they trusted and was the only one they could communicate with, making her the whale’s link to the world. It may seem random that the whale’s mother said that the ocean is blue, but I think the mother means that all whales, no matter what hertz they communicate in, all live in the same world — the ocean. The mother advises her son to continue to call out to the world to eventually reach someone like himself.
Yet, the whale is losing hope since he doesn’t know what to do for “this place is too dark, And full of other whales that speak other languages.” To the whale, the ocean is not blue, but full of darkness since it is full of whales that speak at a different hertz. This darkness makes the whale feel alienated, which is further emphasized by the variety of whales. The 52-hertz whale wants to look for someone with a similar call frequency. For the whale, the sense of alienation comes from belonging to a different culture and suddenly finding himself in a new place.
I can relate to the whale as someone who grew up in both worlds — inside and outside of the house. In the house, I spoke my native language, Korean, along with abiding its customs. As soon as I stepped outside of the house, I switched into speaking American English exclusively.
Even though I feel American, due to my skin color, I’ve always been reminded that I don’t belong like the 52-hertz whale.
The American education system especially made me feel alienated from my peers. In elementary school, I was put in speech therapy while everyone else had normal English class. I couldn’t understand everyone else’s qualms about their English class since their class culture was different from speech therapy’s culture. This continued in middle school, but it evolved into ESL, English Second Language class. This linguistic isolation made me determined to graduate into normal English class, which happened two years into middle school. I, too, share the Whalien 52 lyrics, “I, too, want to let the world know / my value Everyday.”
To summarize, Edward Hopper sees alienation as a clash between past and future. On the other hand, BTS sees alienation as a lack of belonging. They both see alienation, an aspect of loneliness, as a dissonance in the natural order.
Having Comfort in Isolation
Loneliness does not exclusively apply to alienation, but can provide a sense of comfort in the busy modern world. In “forever rain” from mono, RM, a member of BTS, expresses his reasons for desire of rain:
I wish it rains all day
Because people would not stare at me Yeah
Because the umbrella would not cover my sad face
Because, in the rain, everyone is busy on their own
RM sees rain as a means to prevent social judgement from others as people would not question his expression. It forces people to get from one destination to another to avoid getting soaked because it interferes with a human’s range of sight by forcing the umbrella to cover their face and upper body. This forces people to look down at the path to find their destinations. So, the rain makes people focus on themselves not on others.
In addition, RM sees rain as a companion as he sings, It keeps knocking on my window, And asks how I’m doing. Rain is part of the routine of nature and provides comfort that they’re not alone. RM expresses this in the following lines:
Please don’t ask me anything
Just keep coming down forever
When you come down, I don’t feel lonely
RM tells the rain to Please don’t ask me anything because it is what humans do as their nature to be curious. This is popularly enforced through the Greek myth of Pandora’s box. Zeus created Pandora with Aphrodite-like features to be Epithemeus’ wife. She was blessed with wisdom, generosity, beauty, kindness, peace, and health by the gods. As a wedding gift, Zeus gave Pandora a box but warned her never to open it. But, one of her traits was to be curious, which eventually overtook her to open the box. The box unleashed life’s miseries such as death, war, and greed. The only thing remaining inside the box was hope (GreekBoston). Pandora is a myth that forewarns human’s curiosity and potential consequences from such a trait. This story has stayed in the popular canon for millennia due to its universality especially to the idea of curiosity. Curiosity is what allowed us as humans to progress so far especially in these last 100 years from industrial to technological society.
Curiosity can lead to questions of what is that person making such expression, which is in this case is sadness. But, questions can lead to assumptions such as that person may have lost their job or got rejected by a loved one. These assumptions can also lead to people judging others of their condition. Also, these assumptions can be defined by looking at the person’s physical features such as skin color, facial physiology, and clothing. All of these factors can make the curious person rely on popular stereotypes and place the person into a category. Yet, it is not simple to define a person into a specific category since humans are complex. So, RM sees rain as a natural barrier against societal expectations.
Finally, to the rain, RM sings When you come down, I don’t feel lonely. Rain itself makes people lonely as it separates a person from others. But, it provides a natural companion to RM as rain is one form of nature’s music. As it rains, it provides a beat depending on how strong or light the rain is pouring. It can provide comfort to loneliness and can provide a window for one to look into oneself. Loneliness does not mean complete silence since nature is everywhere and provides its own melody. Nature shows that life goes on no matter what one is feeling.
On the other hand, Chair Car centers around a person, who is alone, encapsulated in their own world. Hopper separates his figures throughout the train. The train has a light gray door and walls with dark green chairs and walls. This color scheme provides a grittiness of the modern world since the door itself has no handle and camouflages with the walls of the train and therefore nearly distinguishable if it had been contoured with a long, rectangular shape that marks it as different from the rest of the wall.
On the train, there are two people facing towards the door of the train. While there is a woman looking towards another woman, who appears to be holding a book on the train. It is unclear whether the woman is looking at the occupied woman out of curiosity. Regardless, this woman is encapsulated by what she is reading and pays no mind that there is a onlooker facing towards her. A book is something that allows the reader to enter a moment into the author’s world. It can be a form of escapism from society as the reader enters into a character or characters’ mindsets as well. It can provide a source of consolation amidst a gritty, monotone modern world that she is part of.
Edward Hopper sees books as one form of consolation during the state of loneliness that allows one to leave their world to enter another. On the other hand, RM sees rain as a device to prevent curiosity about his emotional state. Also, he also sees rain as a companion to loneliness since it provides melody because loneliness does not mean complete silence as nature continues its routines.
Never Walk Alone
Nighthawks, Hopper’s signature work, shows a nearly empty diner with four people on an empty street. Within the diner, there is a man turned with his back to the viewer, so we don’t know how he is doing or feeling. On the other hand, we see two people sitting next to each other next to the diner worker with a white hat. Examining closer, we see that the woman in a red dress and man with a suit barely touching hands. These two people do not make eye contact with each other. This lack of intimacy between these two people shows that they see each other as strangers. The diner worker is placed beneath these two strangers to show the hierarchy between customer and worker. Yet, it is unclear whether the worker has his head facing towards the strangers, whether he is about to speak or wants to speak to the two strangers.
The people of the diner including the worker are all strangers to each other and alone in their world. This is supported as the woman in a red dress looking at her hand not paying attention to her surroundings meanwhile the man next to her appears to be staring off to the distance. The worker has his arms crossed and is in an act of doing a task. So, he is partaking in his duties. Even though the man turned his back to us, it provides a blank canvas for us the viewer to partake in to witness the interaction of this group of three strangers.
In this work, everyone is alone as strangers, who do not recognize anyone in the diner. Hopper does not see this in a negative light through his color scheme of the painting. The diner is lit with warm yellow to provide a comforting atmosphere. This gives an impression that the diner welcomes anyone regardless of one’s state of being. This is further supported by the diner’s dark brown sign that labels the diner as “Phillies”. This sign seems to imitate the likeness of wood. Underneath the diner, there are dark green moldings on top and below the wide,expansive glass. This combination of dark green and brown is a color of comfort as it reminds me of forests. Only objects in the diner that indicate industrial society are gray-colored dispensers. But, this color is also the sign of progress.
While Hopper accepts that we live in a world of strangers, BTS know that their path is lonely, but they know that they have each other. BTS begins in Never Walk Alone with At the end of this road, I walk alone/Whatever it is there, I set my foot on it. BTS sets the theme by having the song’s subject walking along the road and taking on its obstacles alone. BTS brings hope that even if they seem to walk alone, they are never alone in their journey. Next, BTS sings Though I’d get tired and hurt sometimes/It’s okay because I’m next to you. No matter what happens, the character has not lost hope because they know that they have someone next to them, the listener, who is partaking in the journey.
It is relieving to know that one is not alone in the journey of life. In the poem “What a relief”, Suga, a member of BTS, expresses his reflection of sharing his journey with BTS since their debut on June 13th, 2013 in Run! Episode 56. He contrasts what has changed since they debuted compared to their present lives.
He expresses his struggles in these lines:
I’m scared and so are we.
We dreamed of flying high up in the sky.
But it’s too high and cold.
It’s hard to catch our breath.
The brighter the light on us, the darker the shadow.
He expresses that BTS members including himself reached the point in their careers where they are overwhelmed to the point that it feels too high and cold to the point that it is difficult for them to breath. It is expressed as a stage light that is cast on them which in turn casts a shadow. Stage light, lack of warmth, and extreme height are factors that can isolate a person from others making them lonely. However, Suga brings hope with these final two lines:
What a relief we have 7 members.
What a relief that we have each other.
BTS members share in these struggles together and therefore never walk alone. The idea of never walking alone means that even though one seems to feel that they are suffering alone, they are people other than oneself that have experienced such hardship also. One never truly struggles alone.
Edward Hopper accepts that we live in the world of strangers, but this is comforting because this is a universal feeling that we humans share when we meet other humans for the first time. BTS sees pain not as a lonely experience but a universal experience since it is part of life. Even though humans may experience different levels of pain compared to other humans, it is an experience that everyone shares that allows communities to form.
Alienation is an aspect of loneliness that we struggle with because it is a social device that bars us from interacting with others. It hurts us, humans, the most as social creatures we thrive on having a community to depend on. But once that community is gone, we are lost and have no anchor to hold onto. However, loneliness is not necessarily defined as just only alienation. Loneliness can be seeking comfort to enter a world or have a nonsocial companion. It is part of daily life. Hopper has shown in his famous Nighthawks that everyone is lonely since we are all strangers and happen to cross paths. BTS shows that loneliness can create a community in itself through sharing a journey together no matter how many obstacles that may cross their path. Loneliness may seem like a simple word, but carries many different meanings.
Sources
Lyrics from https://doolsetbangtan.wordpress.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/52-hertz_whale
https://www.vlive.tv/video/81492
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/hopper-edward/life-and-legacy/
http://edwardhopper.weebly.com/historical-context.html
https://www.cottagedepot.com/pages/victorian-architectural-history
