In the song “Breaking Hearts” by James Vincent McMorrow, the songwriter depicts the image of a man who cares little about love and who is not fond of growing attached to anyone, preferring to live a life of emotional isolation. The speaker in this song has trained himself to refuse affection and be unaffected by the broken hearted girls he leaves behind. Providing the image of an uncaring, heartless man in “Breaking Hearts”, James Vincent McMorrow uses consistent characterization, purposeful diction, and heartless figurative language to portray the tone of the speaker as insensitive disinterest and show how he has “been breaking hearts for far too long”.
In this song, James Vincent McMorrow consistently uses characterization to describe the speaker of the song. The speaker is shown as a man who goes from one girl to another, refusing to get attached to just one. “See I’ve been breaking hearts for far too long” the speaker says, showing that this is a regular practice of his; he has become accustomed to never growing attached to any particular girl. Love isn’t an interest of the speaker, in fact he says “when it comes to dying, I’ll do it on my own”, essentially saying he’d rather die alone than live a happy life with one woman. The speaker also shows how little he lusts after love when he says: “you can stop your crying, I’m never coming back”. As he speaks to the audience, in this case a broken hearted girl, he seems to feel no sympathy towards her emotions. Instead he tosses her aside, dismissing her like the rest of the girls he refuses to grow fond of. McMorrow uses persistent characterization of the speaker throughout the entire song to stress the speaker’s disinterest in a serious relationship and to depict the speaker’s tone of insensitivity.
Aside from consistent characterization, James Vincent McMorrow also utilizes purposeful diction; he chooses specific words to use to continually serve as a tool to show the speaker’s tone of disinterest. The speaker says “I’m gonna find a city, call the streets my own” to provide the image of a man who wants power and control, over a city or over his emotions. He doesn’t want to lose control over his heart, thus the reason that he doesn’t allow himself to connect emotionally with any girl he meets. “I just can’t take the pressure, it’s all too much for me” the speaker says. Using the word pressure allows for us to see that to him, love isn’t a luxury but a stressful task with unpleasant results. The speaker finds it easier to stay emotionally detached than to endure the “pressure” of a relationship. The speaker also says “when I need the shelter, I’ll be knocking on your door”, depicting more clearly how the speaker uses woman but never commits to them. When he feels lonely, he knows that no matter how much he hurt that girl before, he can rely on her to keep him company. She can provide him “shelter” from the loneliness of his emotionless love life. The diction and specific choice of words helps to portray the speaker’s disinterested and uncaring tone.
The last device that James Vincent McMorrow uses to show the speaker’s insensitive disinterest in love is heartless and insensitive figurative language. The commonly used phrase in this song, “I’ve been breaking hearts” is an example of figurative language; the speaker is not literally breaking girls’ hearts, but rather breaking them down emotionally due to his lack of commitment and love. He says “I’m gonna find a city, drink until it’s gone”. The city would not actually disappear, but the speaker would forget any girls he has grown even slightly attached to and the rest of the city, as he continues to drink until he becomes numb. “The girls they look so pretty, they’re all just empty shells to me” the speaker says, using a metaphor comparing the girls to empty shells since he doesn’t care what emotional damage he creates for the women he uses, he only recognizes their physical appearance. These literary devices are scattered around the song and serve to clearly show the speaker’s tone of insensitivity.
In the song “Breaking Hearts” by James Vincent McMorrow, the speaker’s tone of insensitive disinterest is portraying by consistent characterization, purposeful diction, and frequent figurative language. The speaker’s tone is not necessarily the same as the songwriter’s tone, and in this case, they do differ. The speaker’s tone is genuine disinterest in a serious love life while the songwriter’s tone is somewhat mocking and condescending towards the speaker, or any man who treats women this way.
