Quinyanna Walker

HUMN 2010

Fall 2021

Analog Project #2

What becomes of the broken hearted? Throughout the semester we depicted heartbreaks

through novels, paintings, songs, and movies. Behind every heartbreak is a different story, but a

common ground, depression. Amy Winehouse “Back to Black” album tells her heartbreaking

life story. From her failed relationships, friendships, and alcohol abuse. Listening to Amy

Winehouse, you realize what she has become after being heartbroken. Although her music does

not always sound sad and depressing, her lyrics are very much so. “Tears Dry on Their Own” is

not a song you would listen to just when you feel down. Even though the words are depressing,

the music will not take your mood there. “The Three-Day Blow” from “The Nick Adams

Stories” tells a story that share similarities and a few differences with Amy Winehouse. Again,

from failed relationships to coping with alcohol but for different reasons.

Amy Winehouse was in a “toxic” relationship with a guy named Blake. Her album tells

half of their story. The song “Tears Dry on Their Own” tells how she deals with having a broken

heart from the relationship. The song has an upbeat tempo, but the lyrics are heart breaking

words. The song begins with “All I can ever be to you is a darkness that we know”. She feels as

if she is not the person who brightens up Blake’s life. “Once it was so right, when we were at our

high”; their relationship was built upon substance abuse. Everything was okay when they did

drugs together. Although Amy Winehouse already had an issue with drinking alcohol, Blake

introduced her to the things that he enjoyed doing. She was in love, she went from smoking
marijuana and drinking, to doing hard drugs as well with Blake. “I cannot play myself again.”

Amy forgives Blake after he hurts her numerous of times. He tends to leave Amy for his ex-

girlfriend. Amy is telling herself that she cannot allow herself to go through the same thing over

again. “Not fuck myself in the head with stupid men”, not only does she not want to endure the

pain again, she also does not want to be so vulnerable for men. She states in the middle of the

song “So we are history”, maybe meaning she’s leaving the past behind her and letting things be

what they are. Leaving the toxic relationship is the best thing to do, but hard for Amy. She still

used alcohol to cope with her depressing moments. She still had those memories that they

shared. During the rocky relationship, Amy lost herself. Once you lose yourself, most times it is

hard to convert back to who you were.

“The Nick Adams Stories”, is a novel that narrates the tragic, heartbreaking story of

Nick’s life. The many things that Nick went through caused him to fall into a depression and lose

himself. The life events also caused him to have a different perspective on life. Nick’s depression

is caused by him being in the war, seeing others die at a young age, being alone and more. In the

story, “The Three-Day Blow”, Nick has a conversation with a friend about a relationship that

Nick ended with a long-term girlfriend, while drinking. Nick is a person who does not talk much

about what bothers him or the pain he deals with on the daily. He cares about what others think

about him. The conversation between Nick and Bill about Nicks relationship triggered his

depression. Nick did not think about the relationship since it was over yet, talking about Marjorie

had an effect on him. Nick went from drunk to sober. Who wants to sit and talk about an ex-

partner that they truly love and can no longer have? Hearing things that you do not want to hear.

He was torn by the relationship ending, although he ended it. He was bothered by hearing the
things he did not know. He felt worse than he did when he left her. To cope with the situation

Nick drinks more and talks less, and eventually changes the subject.

Nick and Amy both have a disastrous life story that affected them and did not realize it.

While Amy is heartbroken from a destructive relationship, Nick’s PTSD leads him into some

heartbreaking situations. They both are numb to the thought of love. They both want love but are

too torn to give the proper love. They use drinking as a coping method to try to forget at least

half of the pain they are enduring. Besides drinking, Nick coped with isolation and fishing, while

Amy coped with writing music. The things they went through defines their character and helps

readers and listeners understand their story. The ending of their stories is not the same. Amy’s

life ended due to alcohol poisoning at the age of 27. On the other hand, Nick finds a way to

prevent suicidal attempts.

For me, I think the ending of the stories should be opposite. Amy was young and had so

much to love for. Things would have got better. Nick had a very depressing life story. With his

issues, you would think he was to become suicidal. Compare and contrasting the two, I realized

everyone takes heartbreaks different. Everyone copes different. And what may hurt one person,

might not have an effect on the other person. I also learned that doing what you think is best for

you is always the right option. When things hurt us or bring us down, we should consider

removing that energy to keep us from falling into a depression state.