THE WALL

There are many reviews of The Wall?some focusing on its exceptional production work, others on its lyrics. Today, however, I want to propose something different: a literary review. An analysis of the psychosocial construction of Pink, the boy who stars in the album's suites, using Theodor Adorno's book "The Authoritarian Personality" as a theoretical basis. It is not possible to categorically state that Waters was inspired by Adorno's studies when shaping Pink's traits. However, there are noticeable convergences when evaluating the character's psychological profile and narrative.

In the plot of The Wall, Pink's childhood is marked by the absence of his father (lost in the war) and the presence of a mother who, although affectionate, is overly protective and, at times, oppressive. These characteristics align with elements that Adorno highlighted in the early development of the authoritarian personality: the inability of a family structure to provide emotional security and encourage individual autonomy. The absence of a father figure and the mother's overprotection create an emotional ambivalence, in which the subject internalizes the idea of ​​authority in a distorted way. This context fosters the development of a personality that oscillates between repressed hostility and the need to submit to external figures. By building his emotional wall, Pink tries to protect himself from a world that, since childhood, has deprived him of any real opportunity to develop an autonomous identity.

Another central element in Pink's trajectory is his school experience, powerfully portrayed in Another Brick in the Wall. The educational system, symbolized by relentless discipline and the imposition of rigid rules, functions as a mechanism that reinforces the repression of individuality and creativity. Adorno argues that institutions that prioritize uniformity and punish dissent tend to foster an authoritarian personality, where blind obedience becomes a defining trait. (This, in turn, explains why so many fascists in Brazil support military schools.) In The Wall, school is not merely a place of learning, but an environment of domination, where each brick, that is, each experience of repression, contributes to the construction of the psychological wall that isolates Pink from the world.

By analyzing the family structure and the educational system within the narrative, it becomes possible to see Pink as a fictional social representation of what Adorno identified in the authoritarian personality: an individual who, having been exposed from an early age to repressive environments, develops defensive instincts that end up transforming into emotional barriers (the wall) that, in turn, make it impossible to establish a healthy relationship with one's own existence and with others.

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