"Fast Car" and "Driving Lessons"

Paper Summary:

Tracy Chapman's song, "Fast Car", tells the story of lovers who desperately want to escape poverty, but can't find a way out. Neal Bower's poem, "Driving Lessons", discusses a son who is in the middle of his parents' unhappy marriage. This paper explains that, while they tell very different stories on the surface, the two are similar in theme and the type of imagery used. Both use driving as a metaphor, questioning the traditional idea of driving as freedom, instead seeing driving as a symbol of being trapped. Both "Fast Car" and "Driving Lessons" deal with the inevitability of family obligation, and loneliness is a theme throughout the song and the poem.

From the Paper:

"Unlike the traditional idea of the car as a means to freedom, both "Fast Car" and "Driving Lessons" prove that one cannot drive away from problems. In "Fast Car", Chapman's protagonist initially sees the car as a means of escape from her dreary, everyday life, but she soon realizes that her problems go deeper than immediate location. At first her lover's fast car seem like the way to freedom, but she eventually realizes that this freedom is an illusion: "You got a fast car/And we go cruising to entertain ourselves/You still ain't got a job/And I work in a market as a checkout girl" (Chapman). Despite the fast car and the physical ability to escape, she and lover remain mired in their poverty and cannot escape. In the end, the song's protagonist gives up on the idea of driving to freedom: "I'd always hoped for better/Thought maybe together you and me would find it/I got no plans/I ain't going nowhere/So take your fast car and keep on driving" (Chapman)."

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