Thesis Questions
Who is the message in the song to?
What is making his daughter Hailee sad?
Why is he talking about carrying on and not mourning him?
Explanation
In the song lyrics for “When I’m Gone” Eminem seems to be telling his daughter not to cry because he won’t be leaving. It seems that he is gone a lot when he is on tour for his music career and his daughter and Kim, his girlfriend are not happy with his constant absence. In the first section of the song he convinces his daughter that he cannot tend to her because he needs to work on his song writing. His career as a rapper is all consuming and won’t allow him to give his daughter the attention she needs. She clearly is craving his attention and the way he ignores her seems to be upsetting his girlfriends as well. Unfortunately his relationship with his daughter’s mother is also quite volatile.
In the second section of the song, he’s talking about a dream he has where he pushes his daughter on a swing while she pleads to him to stop singing while mentioning to him that he is making mommy cry. His daughter and daughter’s mother (girlfriend, Kim) are devastated that he is getting ready to leave once again and his daughter tries to block the door by piling boxes up so he won’t leave. He tells her he has to go and that it will be the last time, but she knows that is a lie. She ends up giving him a locket to keep him safe while he’s gone because despite the pleading, he knows he has to go.
Suddenly he is on a stage in front 60 thousand people, singing on stage. He performs at his concert and as the curtain closes he sees his daughter who is telling him that mommy’s wrists are bleeding. It seems that his girlfriend tries to kill herself while he is gone. He tries to explain to his daughter that the whole reason he is doing this is to earn a good living for them (his family). But his daughter ignores him and says he chooses his fans and music over her and her mom. Suddenly the curtain closes again and now he is cocking a gun to shoot himself in the head when suddenly he finds out that the plane he was supposed to be on crashes. Right then his alarm goes off and he wakes up to find he was having a nightmare. He wakes up to see Kim and his daughter and her sister. He walks up to Kim to kiss her and sees his daughter Hailee smiling.
The chorus that repeats is quite melancholy. He seems to be telling his loved one’s not to mourn and miss him when he’s gone. That wherever he is he is not in pain and that he will be ok and to move on with life as usual when he is not around. Instead he tells them to smile and rejoin when they hear the sound of his voice, hence his music. It seems he wants them to celebrate what he is doing rather than spending time sad missing him.
