Symbolism in "The Wall"

Symbolism and imagery are utilized throughout Pink Floyd’s The Wall to portray the education system as a machine whose sole purpose is to destroy the imagination of students, making each one into a uniform “brick in the wall” of society. A symbol displayed throughout the video is the mask. The students are all shown on conveyor belts or walking in organized formations while wearing a copy of the same mask. Not only are the masks identical to one another, but they are completely featureless with nothing more than what look liked burnt up holes for the eyes and mouth. These masks are a symbol representing the mindless drones the system wants the students to become. The masks, when worn, seem to turn the students into slaves, marching like army squads. The idea of bricks in the wall can be compared to same ideas of the masks. Bricks, too, are identical and interchangeable. As they are inanimate objects, they’re also thoughtless and disposable, which seems to be the ideal personality of students to these teachers. The dispensability is represented by the students willingly face planting into the meat grinder. This further drives the idea that the students do not have their own thoughts, because without a fight, they plummet to their early demises. The imagery of the students walking through a maze also shows the disposability of the students. The students are in place of the typical lab mice, which are seen as generic animals for testing. They are not excessively valued or given a particularly good life. Essentially, this shows the children as replaceable bodies, not unique or special in any way. This furthers the idea of the education system’s desire to destroy all creativity and imagination in students and turn them into cogs in the corporate machines. All of these images and symbols are used to construct the idea that teachers think creativity is useless and students should stick to doing what they’re told and follow the rules, bringing them closer to being cookie cutter students, or bricks in the wall.