The story Finding your Howl, once captive wolves are set into the wild. Mummon (main wolf) realizes that he must find his "howl" to become the alpha so his pack will survive extinction. He went through his personal hell of weather elements, starvation, fear of the unknown and that fact is he can make it on his own. Eventually, Mummon found his howl and his pack did not fear extinction. Finding you Howl is a story about a wolf’s journey/realization about finding oneself and facing the troubles that build with whatever life has in store.
The author Jonathan Flaum shares a story about a classmate’s story. The classmate wrote about a Tiger at a zoo. The tiger wanted to escape: so the tiger planned an escape to jump out of the cage. But every the tiger was about to escape, the tiger always woke up in a different cage. The story is that there is no easy escape from a situation that we either created or is out of our control. The cage that everyone is stuck in is apart of ourselves. To overcome the cage/problems, we need to overcome ourselves.
The first lyric I thought of is from Breaking Benjamin, "What I found, in this town, I'm heading for a breakdown." This lyric popped in my head because in the explanation about how the cage is our home, yet it also can act like a prison. What the lyric is saying is that "he" can not stay where he is any longer because he thinks he is going to lose his mind. It is completely normal for someone to want to leave somewhere that they have been all their life (captivity to wildlife). But then the story described the cage as being a prison and a home (fear of the unknown and struggling to survive in the short story). How something can be as comfortable as home, but cruel as a personal hell. If the cage is a part of us, can people technically overcome themselves completely, since that problem always be attached to us like the cage would be? How do we know if we are over the barrier?
The Breaking Benjamin lyric is actually inspirational because it is about someone breaking out and moving on with their life. In a creative sense, it is a distinct and relatable song. Everyone has experiences, people, and situations that they want to just escape. This song can go for most types of ages and people. The sound is very rebellious sounding, grunge metal, screamo, and original riffs. This sound is very relatable because it sounds rebellious which is good for the message of the song. Since the song is about leaving the known and going into the unknown, it can be considered rebelling, a.k.a, going against authority (leaving the town part). The whole song is about escaping that cage and starting off with a clean slate. The only problem that I see with that theory is, will that person ever be able to get through that fear or barrier? Even if that person escapes by moving on, will that barrier he or she once tried to escape come back to haunt and manipulate them? The genius of this song/lyric is that it can be interpreted in many different ways. To some people, this song speaks the truth about how we need to just leave to escape our demons. It is possible to escape without going through a personal hell. To some other people, the rebellion may be a mask for not facing the barrier and themselves.
So we have two conflicting ideas from very two different types of sources. Both ideas can be seen in multiple ways and I respect both ideas. I just wonder if there is some kind of theory out there that is a good median between the two ideas. I appreciate Flaums story about how in order to overcome a problem or a barrier, we need to face ourselves to get through the situation. There are problems that are created by us, but then others that are out of our control. But then the words of Breaking Benjamin also are about people being able to leave and let go of the barriers that might be holding you back from whatever dream you have. That is the genius behind both theories, one theory may not be always right or wrong. It depends on the person and the situation.
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