The soundtrack of "The Temple"

Chris Ganson

Blog #4

"The Temple" Soundtrack

“The Temple” is about a woman who keeps hearing a strange sound outside her window. As the women goes to inspect the the noise it sounds less animal like and more human like. The sound leads the woman to the garden where she finds a baby’s skull. She removes the skull and keeps it in her bedroom. "In this way the woman's bedroom became a secret temple. On the velvet cloth the skull and bones, unnamed, would be discovered after the woman's death, but that was a long way off” (Oates 348). I believe that the woman is generally insane. 

Madness by Muse is a great song that describes how the women is feeling. The opening verse relates to the story describes how the women is feeling. If the women murdered her son or relative the memory haunts her in her self conscious and manifests its self as the strange noise. The women can’t seem to get the memory “out of her mind” and “some kind of madness has started to evolve”. The women is eventually driven mad by the sound and proceeds to dig up the skull. “She had no choice, then, did she?-she must trace the sound to its origin” (Oates 346).

“I, I can't get these memories out of my mind 

And some kind of madness has started to evolve 

I, I tried so hard to let you go 

But some kind of madness is swallowing me whole, yeah”

Lithium by Nirvana is another song that relates to the story. Lithium is an alkali metal that is used in the treatment of many psychological disorders such as bipolar disorder, major depression, and even schizophrenia. The women in the story has some mental disorder and should be put on some medications like lithium. Interesting enough the song is about someone that is mad and hears voices in his head. This is similar to the women in “The Temple” who hears a babies cry. “How like a baby's cry, terribly distressing to hear! and the scratching, which came in spasmodic, desperate flurries, was yet more distressing, evoking an obscure horror.” (*Oates 347)

Getting Away with Murder by Papa Roach can also be used to describe how the women in the short story is feeling. “What creates my own madness? And I’m addicted to your punishment.” The women in the story is driven mad by the mysterious sound and eventually goes looking for the source. When the women finds that its an child’s skull she goes and makes a temple in her bedroom for the child. “In this way the woman's bedroom became a secret temple. On the velvet cloth the skull and bones, unnamed, would be discovered after the woman's death, but that was a long way off” (Oates 348). The women is addicted to the babies punishment by worshiping it and by constantly being reminded by it. 

Somewhere beyond happiness and sadnessI need to calculate

What creates my own madness

And I'm addicted to your punishment

And you're the master

And I am waiting for disaster

Let the Bodies Hit the Floor by Drowning Pool is a song that doesn't really relate to the story too well, but it does talk about dead bodies and floors which are both found in “The Temple”. I basically included this song because it was the first song that came to mind after reading the short story.

My last song is I’m Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves. I picked this song mostly because I wanted to end on a happy note. I feel like my other picks are talking about dead bodies and madness. The song is generally a happy song about being with your loved one. At the end of the story the women sets up a temple in her bedroom of the child. “Tenderly, meticulously, the woman arranged the skull and bones into the shape of a human being. Though most of the skeleton was missing, it would never seem to the woman's loving eye that this was so” (Oates 347). The women releases that she loves the baby and wants it back. After the women gets her loved one back, she then precedes to set up a temple in her bedroom so they will always be together. The last sentence of the short story states that the babies body wouldn't be found until after the women's death, but that was a long way off. I would like to believe that since being reunited with the baby the women is happy and gay and feels like she is “walking on sunshine”. 

I used to think maybe you loved me, now I know that its true

and I don't want to spend all my life , just in waiting for you

now I don't want u back for the weekend

not back for a day , no no no

I said baby I just want you back and I want you to stay