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This was a paper I wrote in college. It sucks and I even pulled a “in this paper” in the first paragraph. Whatever, I graduated. I love you Marina!

Theoretical Writing Assignment 2

Robert Merton’s Strain Theory and MARINA’s “Purge the Poison”

Robert Merton was an American sociologist who theorized about why crime occured and what pushed people to commit crime. He came up with strain theory, which is that social factors drive people to commit crime. For example, if someone does not have money, they might rob a store in order to pay for groceries. There are 5 different responses to strain according to Merton. These will all be discussed in the paper, but the main one of focus will be rebellion. In MARINA’s song titled “Purge the Poison”, she talks about being tired of the way society is ruined. She highlights the need to gather together to change for the better and break down key societal functions such as capitalism. This ties into rebellion, one of Merton’s response to strain, because she is suggesting that society needs to be overtaken and replaced. 

To better understand the connection between this song and rebellion, the song needs to be analyzed and discussed. “Purge the Poison” by MARINA is her call to action to take charge over oppressive societal systems. She sings the chorus from the perspective of Mother Nature in order to show a different perspective to environmental activism and draw attention to the problems she sees. The main idea of her call to action is that humans ruined the Earth, including both the environment and societal systems. Not only are different natural disasters happening, many movements such as “Me Too” are occuring from sexual assaults that had been normalized for years. She mentions that she and her friends are “witches” and have been working to protect the Earth, and now more need to join. I imagine this is more so a play on how she feels society views those who rebel against and negatively view the government. 

Now onto understanding strain theory from Merton, we can first look at his five responses.  There is conformity, innovation, ritualists, retreatists, and rebellion. Conformity is those who follow societal goals through legitimate means, such as seeking promotions in his job to reach his career goal. This is approved by society and keeps it functional. Innovation are those who want a societal goal, but don’t have legitmate means. This might be someone who wants money, but steals it from others instead of through a job. Ritualists are individuals who don’t have any hope on achieving societal goals, but continue through society’s approved means at life. Retreatists are those who have rejected societal means and goals and attempt to leave society. This can be seen as someone who is a hermit and lives off the land. Finally, there is rebellion which is the main focus in the connection between “Purge the Poison” and strain theory. Rebellion is a group of individuals who want to replace societal goals and work to acheive them in their own means. Anarchists are an example of rebels. 

Putting these two together, there are multiple points in the song that showcase rebellion thinking according to Merton. In MARINA’s song, she sings “It’s a new world order, everything just falls away, Our life as we knew it now belongs to yesterday.” This is her saying that it is currently a time of societal change, and that our old way of life has gone. It is a chance to rise up and overthrow oppressive regimes. In Merton’s “Social Structure and Anomie,” he states “rebellion occurs when emancipation from reigning standards…leads to the attempt to introduce a ‘new social order’” (Merton 678). Merton explains that rebels want to introduce a new way of life called the “new social order” just like MARINA states it is a time under a “new world order.” The language she uses in this line can place her under the rebellion category in strain theory. 

Another line from MARINA calls out society’s use of capitalism. She states “captialism made us poor.” In “Social Structure and Anomie” Merton writes, “the limitation of opportunity to unskilled labor and the resultant low income can not compete in terms of conventional standards of achievement with the high income from organized vice” (Merton 678-679). Essentially what Merton is saying is that those who unskilled laborers have no opportunity to obtain societal means without using illegitimate means, such as drug dealing for example. This would fall under innovation for most people, but MARINA is pushing past that and saying that we need to break down capitalism to stop the need for illegitimate means. This is what makes her song about rebellion rather than innovation. Alongside this, Merton also writes about how societal goals transcend class lines, and those who are at the bottom still have the same goals of those at the top. Mostly, this is related to wanting money and success. In MARINA’s eyes, what stops those at the bottom from getting that societal goal is what the government enforces which is why it needs to be gone. 

MARINA’s “Purge the Poison” offers a modern look at rebellion from inside American society that fits alongside Merton’s views within strain theory. She sings about how society has become oppressive, but now is a time of opportunity. This pushes past Merton’s other alignments in strain theory, which casts her into the rebellion category. Its an interesting look into even though society seems to change, core ideas such as strain never seem to leave, and neither does the fight against it. 

Works Cited

Diamandis, Marina. Lyrics to “Purge the Poison.” Atlantic Records, 2021. Genuis, https://genius.com/Marina-purge-the-poison-lyrics

Merton, Robert K. “Social Structure and Anomie.” American Sociological Review, vol. 3, no. 5, 1938, pp. 672–82. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2084686. Accessed 29 Nov. 2022.

If you read this, cool beans.