IT's My Party

¶ … psychoanalytical critical analysis of Leslie Gore's "It's My Party." Using two tools and two coding mechanisms in your critique. Use psychoanalytical tools and coding mechanisms in your discussion. The lyrics of this song depict a person who is fragile, co-dependent and in great conflict Her fragile ego easily affects her emotional balance. [It's My Party Analysis] In a struggle to strive for a sense of self, human beings are often in conflict with their emotions and use many ways to deal with social and cultural phenomena that impact their lives.

Leslie gore's "It's My Party" is a good example of a young woman struggling through a relation at a critical moment in her life, her birthday party. The song depicts a woman of unknown age who is celebrating an important occasion in her life, only to find that the celebration is marred by the loss of her boyfriend.

The song bemoans the loss and mockingly, she chants, "oh what a birthday surprise." If we begin by looking at the symbolism in of the lyrics, we can see that the woman depicted in the song is in turmoil. There could be several things taking place and perhaps some confusion as to what's real and what's not.

Could she have lost touch completely with reality and perhaps is suffering from some sort of psychosis, where she is imagining a situation? Perhaps Johnny was never her boyfriend but rather Judy's all along and she is transferring her desires to be with Johnny by creating an imaginary situation. Analytically, this transference illustrates some unresolved conflicts, dependencies or aggressions that could be transferred to Johnny from another object of her desire.

Perhaps the line, "when he's supposed to be mine" demonstrates some type of fixation on Johnny Or another male that was an important figure in an earlier phase in her life. Symbolically, the song is fraught with contradictions. The very first line shows conflict, "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to." Who cries at a party? Is she looking for justification or acceptance? She could be suffering from depression. That would explain the crying syndrome.

In the third set of lyrics, she alludes to the fact that without Johnny, there is nothing. She indicates her need or desire to be alone. This could be indicative of a martyr-like syndrome or a "poor me" complex. Perhaps, she is employing an inverted look at her life.

How can Johnny, her fantasy man be causing her such pain? She does not seem to be able to distinguish between fantasy and reality enough to realize that if indeed Johnny is real and this is her birthday party, then the pain is real. It is the reality of the moment and the event that is causing her pain, not the fantasy that she has created.

People make numerous transformations throughout their life and the individual epitomized in the lyrics of this song has not learned that life does not always provide immediate gratification. She indicates that she is wallowing in her pain by dancing alone, that she wants to be left alone and that only Johnny can make her happy. An analysis of this behavior would indicate a co-dependent person who cannot find happiness alone and needs to be validated by someone else's love of her.

She is obviously devastated that someone else would be chosen over her and this could be an indication of a deflated ego. She is lacking a healthy sense of self and is allowing the actions or lack of actions on the part of another to affect her happiness. These tendencies and idiosyncrasies indicate a lack of development, even as an adolescent, which we assume she is.

Her choice of words indicates a sense of absence and a profound display of "self-Cancellation." She appears to have lost her self in her progressive dependence on her relationship with Johnny to bring her happiness. Of course, she could also be exhibiting displacement behavior, causing her undue and extraordinary distress by putting too much significance on the events that took place in the beginning. Whatever the reason, she is apparently suffering through what must seem like an eternity.

The fact that the song was written in the 1960s when "going steady" was signified by wearing someone's ring is only another indicator of her angst. Imagine the overwhelming embarrassment this individual experienced when her believed boyfriend asks another girl to wear his ring on her birthday. Suppressed anger almost rings through the words, particularly as described in the last.