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April 2, 2021

Analogue Project #2

Sadness, darkness, and depression are common adjectives that can used to describe both

Amy Winehouse’s “Wake up Alone” and Darkness Visible by William Styron. Although, one is

a song and the other is a book, the connection between the two from a literacy standpoint is

extremely evident. Both the song and the book exemplify depression and signs of being alone

that Amy and William experienced both experienced.

One of the strongest connections I got from both pieces of literacy is when Amy sings

about the darkness that comes upon her at the end of the day after trying to avoid her feelings for

Blake in the song “Wake up Alone.” Darkness Visible is comparable in the sense that the

darkness is the depression comes upon William. Although his depression comes up in a different

way, it still maintains the same meaning and feeling. Another connection that can be assumed

from both the real-life depression in the memoir and “Wake up Alone” is that both Amy and

William suffered with drinking problems. Amy mentions in her song “at least I'm not drinking.”

It is also known that the author of Darkness Visible suffered from a drinking problem. When he

would stop drinking the absence of alcohol caused him severe depression and subsequent dive

into the darkness.

When Amy speaks about the loneliness of her life and how sad it truly is it can be

connected to William’s memoir by his life being lonely and sunken into the depths of his writing.

While analyzing “Wake up Alone” there is a portion of that song where Amy says, “if I was my

heart, I’d rather be restless.” That particular portion of the song could be taken as that as she

would rather die than live without Blake by her side. Ultimately, the sadness of her life did make
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her feel alone even though she was surrounded by people. Eventually, the loneliness took her

life. Whether or not it was because of her drinking or because of Blake, it is known she did

commit suicide. All the clues of her depression were right in the lyrics of her songs and at the

time nobody understood. As mentioned, and connected to by Darkness Visible “Depression has

no genre, race or care” meaning that anybody can be depressed regardless of how you look, act

or do. Even the most successful people can be depressed and dive into the darkness of their

minds. Darkness Visible has connected with many people because Styron shed light on the

disease that depression truly is. Amy also shed light to many people but the image she portrayed

did not allow for her message to come across until after she committed suicide. In “Wake up

Alone” she says that “as the darkness covers me, I cannot run now” This particular line can be

interpreted to Darkness Visible when he says, “I will never know the reason when and why this

disease crippled me.” This connection between the two exemplifies the meaning of depression

and the heartbreak associated with it.

In conclusion, to tie things together after analyzing multiples lines of the song to the text

it is known that both the famous musical artist and author were battling with their inner demons.

Unfortunately, Amy fell to the illness while Styron wrote about it and spread awareness to others

that may have been in the same situation. An imperative lesson to also be learned from this is

that depression can strike at any moment without any notice. One second someone can be

extremely happy and the next day can be extremely depressed for what seems absolutely no

reason at all. To take a more personal approach, sometimes I get in a mood where I'm very

lethargic and don’t want to do anything whether it be schoolwork, work, or maintaining an

emotional connection with people I truly care about. When I get in this type of mood, I try to

think of all the good things in life and try not to harp on the bad things I cannot control. All in
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all, depression is to be taken very seriously. Depression is a serious issue and can take the lives

of those who were letting out a cry for help but not taken seriously.