Michael Jackson - Man in the Mirror Lyrics Meaning

This song is about a man who resolves to (or is trying to alter his ways) before he starts changing the world. He speaks about how certain situations he has seen has really affected him (e.g. the impoverished children in the streets) and how he desires and feels that to make a really major change, he must start with himself (the man in the mirror.) This song focuses on self-reflection and the inner struggle of one individual to become better, more upright and more moral. It brings about questions such as, “What is the individual’s responsibility to society? Can we change the world by changing ourselves? What is the power of one person to create change?” The audience is in general subjective and perhaps not specific as the song is basically to inspire others to help themselves before they help others.

In the first verse, the writer begins by creating a winter setting by using visual imagery. The writer first wears his “favourite winter coat”, turning “up the collar” as he leaves his home. The writer then uses personification in “This wind is blowing my mind” – given the wind a humanlike quality because of the word “blowing” and also serves as an image to portray his state of mind by telling the audience that in the chilly weather is not affecting him physically, but mentally because he is greeted by the sight of “kids in the street, with not enough to eat”. This juxtaposition of the writer’s wealth and the children’s poverty shows that they are from different classes; while the writer has the luxury of choosing coats, the children are not even able to get sufficient food. The writer then rhetorically questions himself “who am I, to be blind?” Firstly, this is a metaphor and hence an instance of figurative language as though the author might not be physically blind, he compares himself to one that is blind. This shows that it is probably not the first time the writer has seen the poor children outside on the streets however; he has always been oblivious and too carried away by his own personal life to “see their needs”. Hence, it is only on that day that that he realized that he has been very selfish as he kept all his money for himself.

The writer continues by using imagery in “A summer’s disregard, A broken bottle top, And one man’s soul/ They follow each other on the wind ya’ know” to convey his feelings to the audience. In the image of “A summer’s disregard”, as summer is usually a time when people are carefree and on vacation, and disregard means “to pay no attention to, to ignore” it might be the writer trying to portray those times of loneliness and depression he suffered because of his problems. The image of “A broken bottle top” hints that he may have had emotional issues and therefore he resorts to drinking away his sorrows or venting out on items. Besides, as a broken bottle top implies that there will be something leaking out of the bottle as the top is spoilt, the writer could also be trying to say that (given the theme of the song) he felt hope and happiness was leaking out, not only from him but from the people who were suffering physically. Also, in “they follow each other on the wind ya’know” – as the wind is very inconsistent and moves around aimlessly, he tells the audience that he was a man who was lost in his problems, but now he has found light and wants to start by changing himself to help others.

Lastly, in “a widow deeply scarred, someone’s broken heart, and a washed out dream, they follow the pattern of the wind ya’ see” the writer once again uses imagery to further highlight the plight of many of the people. “A widow deeply scarred” brings to mind the image of physical scars, hurt and abuse, but we understand that the writer is more so speaking about the emotional and mental hurt the widow might be going through, the stress, the pain of perhaps losing her husband, and hence financial stability. “Someone’s broken heart” – we know that technically one’s heart cannot be broken, but the author uses this painful image to bring across one’s anguish and despair – perhaps, given the theme of the song, it could be referring to the broken heart of a mother when she sees her children having not enough money to survive, or a broken heart of a child not able to pursue his ambitions due to financial constrains. Lastly, in “a washed out dream” – we think of many clothes being washed again and again till they are faded, and likewise the writer uses this effective image to bring across how an individual’s dream is faded. It evokes a sense of sympathy for the poor people out there who are unable to live normally and healthily. Rather they are swamped by such problems and it results in them being broken individuals.

Although the tone of the poem starts off self-reflective, and also with a hint of despair and gloom, yet all the more it inspires one to work towards being a better individual especially when we are much better off and more privileged than most. It is peppered with imagery – even “Man in the Mirror” is an image and a figurative language of speech to indirectly refer or show us that the “man in the mirror” is not anyone else, but ourselves. Most of the imagery paint very glaringly the pitiful plight of the less-privileged and less wealthy and causes us to examine ourselves – why should we be wallowing in our insignificant and minute problems when there is a greater cause out there which we can aspire to?

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