“Impossible Year” by Brendon Urie is a very emotional song. Just as the title states, Urie is singing about an impossible year, a year that was absolutely horrible. The song opens up with the use of a pathetic fallacy. The use of the word “pathetic”, is not meant to be derogatory. This literary device is used when the weather portrays emotions. Urie uses the phrases “clouds full of fear” and “storms full of sorrow” to provide an image to the listener. The descriptions of “black days” and “sky grey” condemns the listener to envision a cold, gloomy, and frightening storm. With the use of these literary devices, listeners can feel and hear firsthand just how terrible Brendon Urie’s year has been. The broken tone heard in his voice truly captures those emotions. This song causes emotions of sorrow, and a melancholia that sneaks up on you. If you have had a tough year, especially in 2020, this song expresses those feelings perfectly.
I believe this song perfectly portrays the year that America and Candido had. The song provides the same emotions that the last few chapters of The Tortilla Curtain does. In the final verses of the song, Urie begins singing in a low, quiet voice. It seems as if he is giving up on any hope. This was similar to the way Candido was unable to feel grief, or anger for his dead baby. The way that Urie compares his emotions to a storm, can be compared to the storm taking place in the story. These settings are both appropriate for the tragic, and devastating events being shared. Urie's impossible year mainly seems to be a demolishing internal battle; whereas, in The Tortilla Curtain, their storm is quite literally stirred up and is the final breaking point for Candido and America.
Song Lyrics/ Tortilla Text Comparison Chart
| “Impossible Year” by Panic! at the Disco | The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle |
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All the guests at the party, they're so insincere They just intrude and exclude, this impossible year |
“...Maybe he’s a racist. Maybe he’s a pig. Maybe he hates us because we’re Mexican”(360). |
| These nightmares always hang on past the dream… | “Everytime she peed it was like fire passing through her. She didn’t know what it was- some lingering effect of what they’d done to her that night, her insides scored and dirty, rubbed raw like a skinned knee...or was it just a new and unexpected phase of her pregnancy?”(181-182). |
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There's no sunshine... There's no you and me... There's no good times... This impossible year... |
“...he felt the cold seep into his veins, a coldness and a weariness like nothing he’d ever known. The dark water was all around him, water as far as he could see, and he wondered if he would ever get warm again. He was beyond cursing, beyond grieving, numbed right to the core of him”(365). |