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Song Analysis: The Girl On The Train

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“I’ve lost control over everything, even the places in my head” (Hawkins). In the novel, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, Rachel Watson struggles to get her life together. She is cursed with a serious drinking problem that results in tantrums and sending threatening messages to Tom, her ex-husband, and Anna, the women he cheated on her with. Now, Rachel rides the train alone everyday and drinks. Every morning and evening, she observes the couple, Scott and Megan Hipwell, who live down the road from her old house. She rides past them each day and begins to fantasize about who they are and their relationship, believing they’re perfect. Soon enough, she discovers that their lives and relationship are anything but perfect. In a way only …show more content…

Anna is a rather self-assured woman. She makes it quite clear that Rachel is inferior and unworthy of Tom: “The thought that she and I - poor, fat Rachel and I - are now in the same boat is unbearable”(Hawkins 281). This is what makes the song “The Boy is Mine” so relatable to their situation. The verse: “But see I know that you may be just a bit jealous of me” perfectly describes Anna’s confidence and complacency about Tom cheating on Rachel to be with her. The song continues as a back and forth battle over winning the love of a guy. The main chorus is another reminder of Anna’s hatred of Rachel interfering with her life and her husband: “You need to give it up, had about enough. It’s not hard to see the boy is mine”. As Rachel and Anna dispute over present issues, Megan struggles with forgetting her …show more content…

Megan’s grim past still haunts her and keeps her from living her life: “It’s the thing I dread, the thing that keeps me awake: being alone in that house. I was so frightened- too frightened to go to sleep” (Hawkins 211). The song “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake, is relevant to Megan’s struggles in many ways. The lyrics of the song describe her clinging past, but uncertain future: “I don’t know where I’m going, but I sure know where I’ve been”. They also pertain to her constant search for love: “I’m just another heart in need of rescue. Waiting on love’s sweet charity”. The strain for love and acceptance seems to be a very common theme in both The Girl on the Train and the three

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