Jake Kestly

Reflection #1

This piece was an assignment I did for my Communication Criticism class earlier
during my junior year at Carroll in 2015. I chose this specifically because it shows a
deeper understanding of analyzation of text that I did have before, but this specifically is
exemplary of my refinement of that. Over that, the application here can be easily
translated into my professional and personal life.
I took a creative work in that of Kanye Wests 2007 song Homecoming and
demonstrated a systematic method in taking the lyrical elements in the track and picking
it apart and breaking down context and meaning via metaphor criticism.
This was an important development in that by doing this assignment, it
accomplished a refinement of understanding context, especially in text in a more
methodical way. This though, can be applied to workplace communication as well as both
technical and informal written communications as well. In this analysis, I realized that
what appeared to be a literal story of a relationship with a woman became a metaphor for
Kanyes relation to his hometown. I made the observation that the description of the
relationship with the woman and Chicago slowly became disjointed and began to unwind
as the song progressed. This was seen through the observation of certain keywords used
and the context in which they were used.
This skill is particularly important in broader communication because a lot of the
time, being able to read what a persons underlying meaning of saying something is

extremely important in management roles and also in just being able to effectively
communicate and get the most out of workplace relationships. A lot of the time, if there is
an issue that arises in such an environment, people may not be direct so having the ability
to be able to see context and make a judgment about what the person may really be trying
to say is very important. Although I believe it would be rare for people to speak in
metaphor, the skill of analyzation displayed in this assignment shows growth in an ability
to understand perhaps both written and verbal communication.