In Jonathan Flaums Find Your Howl, Flaum recites a tale of a wolf named Mumon. The story of this wolfs life begins with the fact that he is an endangered species on the brink of extinction. To preserve his species, the fourteen wolves left are taken out of their natural habitat and made to copulate in a caged world. Over the course of this treatment, Mumon loses his ability to howl, by howl the author metaphorically states the innate instincts that all wolves live by (ie. hunting, stalking etc). Once release, and although it takes awhile Mumon regains his howl.
When reading this poem, I realize that every single one of us has a howl. An innate talent that if not used we could lose, but we can always find it again. Although it may be hard to narrow down a specific howl to fit my persona, I have realized that my howl is not something to find. Your howl is the one thing that defines the best in you! After taking that into consideration, I would say that my howl somehow relates to my kindness, eccentricity and inhibition to always see the best in people. Due to this I always try to help others less important than me.
Breaking down my howl to find a lyrical piece that summarizes kindness, eccentricity and helpfulness I concluded on one song. After scouring my mind to find a something that would creatively describe my howl I have finally concluded on a song from the legendary stage musical Les Miserables. The song in question would be the lamented solo sung by the character Jean Valjean, “Bring Him Home.” This song explicitly describes the three attributes that make up my howl in a creative and expressive way that could not equal to any other.
"God on highHear my prayerIn my needYou have always been thereHe is youngHe's afraidLet him restHeaven blessed.Bring him homeBring him homeBring him home.He's like the son I might have knownIf God had granted me a son.The summers dieOne by oneHow soon they flyOn and onAnd I am oldAnd will be gone.Bring him peaceBring him joyHe is youngHe is only a boyYou can takeYou can giveLet him beLet him liveIf I dieLet me dieLet him liveBring him homeBring him homeBring him home."
From Les Miserables "Bring Him Home" a musical adaption by Alan Boubil and Claude-Michel Schonberg. 1980
After reading the lyrics, the first component of my howl and what it creatively expresses would be my kindness. The whole song is an ode to how Valjean must move on from holding on to his adopted daughter and let her live on with her own life. Even if it means him leaving the picture entirely out of his daughters life, and giving her wholly to the man she loves. I can see no kindness greater than a father willing to accept that what is best for his daughter, is not what he would want at all.
Next would be my eccentricity, otherwise known as the oddities that make me who I am. In the musical Jean Valjean is a character who was a convict unjustly accused for stealing a loaf of bread to save his sisters son. To escape the injustices he was trialed with, Valjean embarks on a second life constantly fleeing from the oppressors who have tried to chain him down. Needless to say, this is not a normal life to live. One may say an eccentric life. In this specific song Valjean belts out all of the emotion and feelings he has lived with over the years. That is why I believe this creatively expresses the eccentricity of my howl.
Finally the last component of my howl would be my helpfulness to help others. “Bring Him Home” is brought out in the musical because Valjean is praying that his daughters lover is kept safe during the rebellion in France during the French Revolution. All he wants is his daughter to be happy, and the only way he can help his daughter achieve this is through helping and hoping in anyway that this man will return safely. Even remarking in the song that “if I die, let me die, but let him live!” This shows the ultimate helpfulness anyone can give and thus ending the three components of my howl in a creative manner.
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