Joni Mitchell's "Little Green" song analysis

This is an analysis of Joni Mitchell's "Little Green".

Parents have to value the happiness of their offspring over their own happiness.  Joni Mitchell was faced with this dilemma in 1965.The young musician was heavily pregnant and very poor. She wouldn’t be able to raise her child well, if at all, so she gave her little girl up for adoption when she was born. This broke the young artist’s heart, but she knew her daughter would grow up better than the life Joni could provide. Joni Mitchell makes use of comparisons to nature, the opinions of significant others, and various characterizations to show that “sometimes there’ll be sorrow” in life, but there is also joy in the mix.

Joni Mitchell uses comparisons to nature in her musical piece. Life, like nature, is filled with both sorrow and joy. Life is destined from birth to grow old and eventually die. In the same way, so are our loves. For example, cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds’ nests so as to have them raised better. Joni makes references to “crocuses” and “Northern Lights” to relate her sorrow and hope for her child. Overall, the relations to nature used combine to form something both happy and sad, sorrow and joy.

This artist also incorporates people she knew at the time into her musical piece. She mentions a “he”, who “went to California/Hearing that everything’s warmer there”. This he is the child’s father, who didn’t or couldn’t stay with Joni to raise their child. Joni probably feels a bit vindictive towards this man, as he wouldn’t stay with them. Joni also mentions that she is a “Child with a child pretending”, meaning that she herself is young, and has parents still. Her parents would probably be disappointed and maybe a bit scared for her, if they knew. All in all, Joni’s citations of her family show that life contains facets both good and bad.

Finally, Joni Mitchell uses various characterizations and personifications of important aspects of her life in her song. One of these that are used is her general outlook towards her actions of giving her child up for adoption. The musician states that she is “sad” and “sorry, but not ashamed”. Joni knows that her actions ultimately affected her child positively, so she’s not ashamed about them. Had she made a decision that kept her happy, her child would have been much worse off. On the whole, characterizations are used to great use in Joni Mitchell’s musical piece.

Reviewing this entire musical composition, the final meaning becomes very clear. Joni Mitchell wants her listeners to learn this message: Life has happiness and sorrow. One cannot exist without the other. Sacrifices must be made, and life-changing decisions often have a lesser of two evils quandary. Joni is also teaching that there is no such things as black or white, just varying shades of grey. Taken as an entire musical piece, taking into account the musician’s previous life experiences, Joni Mitchell is teaching her audience a very important message of love and sacrifice, a message that can be applied to all time periods.

My Theme/Genre With Which I Am To Analyze

For my Poetry of Song class this year, I plan on analyzing and reviewing Steampunk music. Steampunk, at it's core, is a juxtaposition of futuristic technology with Victorian era culture or sentiments. This retro and anachronistic view on history allows for many versions that fall under the same brand of Steampunk. For example, both Gothic and western style music can fall under Steampunk occasionally. Abney Park is the frontrunner of the Steampunk music industry, having created five albums to date within the last five years. Steampunk music often contains outdated or unusual instruments to show the speculative and alternative history it portrays. Other Steampunk artists include Professor Elemental, The Cog is Dead, and Voltaire.