"Little Green" Song Analysis

Shifting from the soothing tone at the start of the song, to the sorrow filled aspirations towards the end in “Little Green”, Joni Mitchell separates hyperbolic imagery, “weary” allusions, loose characterization, and brave confessions to portray her lonesome love for her fatherless child.

In the song “Little Green” Joni Mitchell does a fantastic job of hiding the universal meaning behind her voice, and the dramatic lyrics. In her lyrics it is fairly hard to define the idea without former knowledge of Joni’s life. Her Hyperbolic dreams of meeting her child (when she is an adult) where almost unheard of at the time. But with her real life perseverance she made it possible.  Joni also uses many different devices in the song such as allusion to portray her love, and respect for her child. One example of allusion was when Joni said “Her eyes are blue” referring to her child. These devices allow the reader/listener to be immersed in the entire experience of “Little Green”.

There are many defiant confessions that the author releases to the world, and her child in the song. She basically announces (between the lines) that she gave her daughter away when she was younger. This is a very personal situation that would take a lot of bravery to form into a song. That allows the theme of revealing dramatic events from her past to continue, such as how her “baby father” left after the baby was born. Joni doesn’t cease to amaze me as she releases information that most would want private. I envy her bravery and persistence in her writing that allows people to be saturated into her life.

The use of characterization in the song has a very broad span. She uses it loosely, meaning she alternates repeatedly, and incorporates multiple “people” inside the song. This helps Imply that there are more than one characters being portrayed within the lyrics. There is three easily noticeable characters in the story a him, her, and child. These characters are what make the integrity of the song, which is why characterization is so important. Without these defined characters you wouldn’t understand or be able to decipher the universal idea. It seems much more difficult to write a song with distinct characterization then without and for that I praise Joni Mitchell.

Joni Mitchell really grasps the way in which to allow her readers/listeners to understand her lyrics with full and intellectual insight. The song’s underlying meaning is clearly there, it is just hidden under the rough, variety of mosaic tones, in her voice, as well as the complex devices in the lyrics. The word brave would with hind-sight be an understatement of the immense will it would take to write a song with this much personal feelings, and heart portrayed within the lyrics of “Little Green”.