Diaz, Benedict B.

Formalist Approach

BSED ENGLISH 4 -2 August 26, 2018

‘I can treat you better than he can.’ - littlest fellow

Shawn Mendez’s Treat you better was famous for its persona looking at a

couple while the girl is experiencing domestic violence. Also, the persona in the

said song is having a quite envy on the boy that he even compares himself to her

guy who does not deserve her that the persona even reiterates “I can treat you

better than he can.” Consequently, Edith L. Tiempo’s Lament for the littlest fellow

primarily talks about a man who compared his wife to a marmoset or a monkey

which, they think, kept looking at them. Thus, through defamiliarization techniques

using metaphors in each of the lines, Tiempo’s poem basically declares the point

of view of the woman, whom the persona in the mentioned song wanted to save

from, making a poem which is expressing a sorrowful narrative of a hopeless man,

like the song Treat you better by Shawn Mendez, waiting for a woman to be freed

from her man’s life.

Metaphors, on one hand, are figurative languages which are typically used In

any form of literature. This includes a direct comparison of two alike things. Hence,

in the poem, metaphor is the leading figure of speech one can be able to notice.

On the first two lines in the poem: “The littlest fellow was a marmoset. He held the

bars and blinked his old man’s eyes.” As one can see, it clearly suggests that the

persona in the poem is looking at the one she described, which is the littlest fellow

(LT). Also, she even compared it to a marmoset which is a small monkey. Thus,

this initially instructs the readers that the persona somehow demote the LT

because originally fellow means ‘a male companion’ but the word to describe the

LT was marmoset. Likewise, she even stated that the LT was even holding the

bars which manifests that the LT was inside a cage. Similarly, LT was being
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BSED ENGLISH 4 -2 August 26, 2018

identified for blinking his old man’s eyes which chiefly suggests that LT was

almost waiting and staring for a lot of time that it even aged a lot. In the song, one

can see that the persona is expecting the woman to be with him but find her happy

with her beloved as in the lines: “I won't lie to you. I know he's just not right for you.

And you can tell me if I'm off but I see it on your face when you say that he's the

one that you want.” Hence, this can now be paralleled to what can one infer in the

poem as in these can be the things the LT are thinking about the woman. How so?

First is with how she described him, that is likely downgrading the position of the

LT which evokes that when a woman did it to someone having the interest to her,

it can only mean rejection. Second is with how he acted together with the bars,

that is likely a person in prison. And what does usually a prison person want if one

held the bar while blinking his eyes? Naturally, he wants someone to notice him

for him to be able to be freed. Thus, the first line means that both of them was

staring at each other but the woman was with her guy rejecting the LT while he

was concluding that that guy is not right for her.

Secondly, on the next lines:

You said he knew us, and took my arms and set

My fingers around the bars, with coaxing mimicries

Of squeak and twitter.

one will see that the persona changes its person from third person to second

person, that is through the pronoun you. Hence, the pronoun you has clearly

done three actions namely: (1) said he knew us, (2) took my arms, and (3) set my

fingers around the bars which surprisingly happened in just one line that may

certainly imply the immediateness of actions of the you in the lines. Also, there
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BSED ENGLISH 4 -2 August 26, 2018

occurred such sounds as squeak and twitter that forsooth indicates swiftness and

shortness of the actions but undeniably suggest quiver or the ability of being

shaky. Thus, this primarily talks about a quick sexual intercourse of two person

even the woman is trembling. On the other hand, the lines in the song: “And you're

spending all your time in this wrong situation and anytime you want it to stop”

indeed insinuate that he is giving the chance to the woman to stop anytime

despite of her trembling for what they are doing.

Then, on the following lines in the poem:

“Now he thinks you are

Another marmoset in a cage.”

One will be able to look at that since the line is quoted, one may constitute it that

someone has said it different from the persona’s thought. Hence, the line

manifests that it was spoken by another person in the poem because if it is indeed

the persona, why would she quote it when in fact she can just say it? So, who said

it? Definitely, the person with her - her guy. Now, since it is already cleared that

the one who said the quote was the guy, it can now suggest that the guy noticed

the act of staring of the LT, concluding that she is like another marmoset in a cage.

And like what has been mentioned earlier, marmoset suggests the act of

downgrading where he, according to the text, demote him by thinking about her

the same situation as the LT. Furthermore, when a cage was being talked about,

certainly, prison was the first thing one may infer. Thus, it is doubtless that the

cage manifests that someone is in prison suffering from a particular consequence

like in a jail, which is, at the first place, the LT then, according to the guy’s quote,
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her woman as well. Accordingly, this followed what the song inferred as in the

lines: I know I can treat you better than he can. And any girl like you deserves a

gentleman. Tell me why are we wasting time on all your wasted crying when you

should be with me instead. I know I can treat you better, better than he can

wherefore this suggests that the woman the persona in the song has described

was suffering from the man, primarily with the underlined words, that he even

thought he wants to stop that by getting her from him.

Another is seen on the next lines:

A proud denial

Set you to laughing, shutting back a question far

Into my mind, something enormous and final.

Since the poem goes back from the usual flow, which is not having a quote, the

one talking in the poem becomes the woman again. This assuredly proved that,

since it came from the words of the woman, the conclusion on the previous part is

indeed true that the man had demoted the position of the woman or simply

suggesting sufferance. Proud denial, on one hand, means a pleased statement

that something is not true. Ergo, the woman now revealed the subconsciousness

of her guy for not knowing that she has indeed in sufferance. Also, the word

laughing in the line can suggest mocking, making her asked a big question to

herself. And if one made a big question to oneself, basically, that person seems to

be problematic. So, this appeared similarly, again, to the next lines in the song as

in: …Would be everything I need and this could be so different, tell me what you

want to do which frankly showed that if the persona in the song thought that she

has something she wants to do, that simply exhibit that that could be the big
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BSED ENGLISH 4 -2 August 26, 2018

question she is thinking, making her problematic that even him, the persona in the

song which is similarly to the LT in the poem, noticed the something that she

wanted to do because one may not particularly notice one’s immediateness in

doing things if he/she does not look problematic.

However, the next lines in the poem as in:

Sometimes in your sleeping face upon the pillow,

I would catch our own little truant unaware;

clearly suggests the misunderstandings between the couple. Sleeping face upon

the pillow, on one hand, denotatively evokes a person sleeping using his/her

pillow. But if one would look at the words, sleeping face can mean that one

became unaware at his/her surroundings because what usually happened if

he/she is already asleep is forsooth, one became unaware. And that would

particularly deepen on the context of pillow because usually, a pillow was only

used when one would be sleeping, and when is that happening? Most particularly

at the end of day. On the other hand, little truant unaware contrive that one is

avoiding something that is supposed to do subtly and subconsciously. Little is

defined as something that is small in size hence, if that so, it would now become

hard to notice, making it elusive or, solely, subtle. Truant, on one hand, is

distinguished as one who shirks duty. Hence, all of these constitute to the

meaning of misunderstanding between the couple because most particularly

misunderstanding normally arose when (1) a couple was not aware of each other,

(2) the end of a relationship was about to happen, and (3) the subtle and

subconscious avoidance between them happened. Thus, this now talks about the
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act being opaqueness of the couples’ relationship as seen throughout the song,

saying that the love of the couple there is opaquing as well.

And that would lead to the next conclusion as seen in the lines:

He had fled from our pain and the dark room of our rage,

But I would snatch him back from yesterday and tomorrow.

You wake, and I bruise my hands on the living cage.

Thus, the words in the lines establishes the fact that it talks about the violence the

couple is experiencing with each other and that the LT has been involved with

them. Our pain clearly suggests that the woman is not the only one experiencing it

but both of them. Dark room of our rage, on the other hand, unarguably invokes

violence because of the word rage which means a strong feeling of anger that was

emphasized through the phrase dark room because normally, what do one usually

see in a dark room? Nothing. Until the eyes has adjusted from the dark. It is the

same feeling when one has gotten a black eye. On the first seconds, naturally,

one cannot see anything for he/she cannot open his/her eyes until he/she has

adjusted from the pain. Hence, these things generally states domestic violence

which is, accordingly, the same as the theme with the involved song - that is of

promoting the awareness of domestic violence as well. Thus, the song and the

poem is concluded as the same in content, structure, and theme.

Therefore, in this paper, one will be able to see the defamiliarization

techniques using metaphors in each lines concluding the likeness of the involved

song and poem. Specifically with the persona in the song that suggests both a

love triangle but in the song, the persona is a boy wanting to save the woman from

her guys while in the poem, the persona is the woman, together with her guy,
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looking at a man which clearly manifest another angle of the triangualar love story.

Indeed, both the text certainly showed that a man is the one looking at a couple

until the the woman is experiencing violence that the reason the man is looking at

them is that he wants to save her from him. Likewise, from the angle of the couple,

it seems like the one caged was the man but actually it is them being caged from

pain they had suffered, making the man - which is the littlest fellow and the

persona in the song as well - do not have anything to do with the situation even if

he wants to save her. Thus, through defamiliarization techniques using

metaphors , Edith L. Tiempo’s Lament for the littlest fellow is indeed a

doppelganger of Shawn Mendez’s Treat you better which showed a different

angle and point of view of the story.

Bibliography:

Merriam, C. & Merriam, G. (2018). Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Merriam-Webster,

Incorporated. Springfield, Masachusetts.

Friedman, S. (n.d.). Shawn Mendes Lyrics. 2000-2018 AZLyrics.com. Retrieved

on August 23, 2018 from

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/shawnmendes/treatyoubetter.html