Analysis of Connor Oberst’s Diction Choices in “No One Would Riot for Less”
This is a song about death, and Connor Oberst makes some wonderful diction decisions to show this. His main way of creating the mood of the song is through his connotative word choice, and there are certain words that really make his point.
The first line of the song says that death may come in a holy wall of fire. This is very connotative to the reader. Holy: sacred, hallowed, blessed, almighty; this brings a superior and magnificent level to what Oberst is trying to say. This holy wall of fire is above you and would never measure up enough to avoid it or survive it. It is also almost oxymoronic or paradoxical, using holy and fire together.
Next Oberst mentions a black I-80 mile. This could have denotative meaning, just saying that the mile of road that you die on is black. But this doesn’t help make his point, and it is also very unlike Oberst. Black always carries dark and negative connotations. This strip of road will be your “Black Tuesday’ of miles traveled, the point where everything crashes and spirals into depression.
In the third line: the madness of the government and the vengeance of the sea. He could have used actions of the government and dangers of the sea, but this would be denotative and too weak. So he makes the government “mad”, now you don’t know what their thinking and they are a liability to your safety. Also, the sea is now out for vengeance. It is no longer just a dangerous, unpredictable body of water, but an ocean that is thirsty for revenge and out to get you. You have to watch your back and makes sure she’s not trying to sneak up on you or smash you with an ACME mallet.
Oberst then goes on to say that your life is eclipsed by destiny. This means that your life is completely overshadowed by your fate. And not just any shadow, but shadowed on a planetary level. Like the moon, your fate isn’t big enough to block out the sun (your life), but it is close enough.
Now Oberst uses Hell as death, saying hell is coming instead of death is coming. This is a very interesting choice. Most Americans believe in a heaven and a hell, and virtually all of those people believe that they will go to heaven when they die. However, Connor Oberst says hell is coming, not heaven. He chooses this word because it carries probably the worst connotations of any word in the world. The fiery lake, the pit of eternal suffering, this paints a very dork picture. And that is precisely why Oberst uses it, he doesn’t want his song to be “halleluiah, here comes heaven”. He wants it to be the holy wall of fire is coming to carry you off to hell.
In the second stanza, after the chorus, Oberst calls the soldiers insects. This is actually an effectively use of denotation on his part. He is saying exactly what he means, the soldiers are insignificant little bugs, bugs that are constantly poisoned, squashed, or incinerated with a magnifying glass.
Happily is another word used by Oberst to convey an emotion. But this shows of the emotion of war. It shows how readily it will just squash the little bug-soldiers. Then he goes on to talk about the soldiers “in the trenches”. We are not fighting any kind of trench war, but this brings up more negative connotations than “on the bases using computer guided missiles”.
