Little Green

           
The bond between mother and child knows no bounds, except that of poverty. Showing a woman’s conflicted views of her decision to put her child up for adoption in Little Green, Joni Mitchell commands symbolic, colorful imagery, distinct characterization, and cryptic diction in order to describe the bittersweet reality of her own choices, “Sometimes there’ll be sorrow.”
           
The color green is usually used to represent nature, fertility, rebirth, etc. Mitchell makes use of the traditional symbolism of the color green to say something about her child: “Call her green and the winters cannot fade her.” Mitchell highlights the colorful imagery of the color green as that of nature, green like spring grass, uninfected with the death-like nature of winter. Green symbolizes the birth of Joni Mitchell’s child, which differs slightly from the traditional meaning of green as rebirth. The “blue” eyed child, Little Green, is a product of Joni Mitchell’s fertility. The color Blue is representative of sadness in English literature. Later in the song, Mitchell composes a letter to the estranged father, indicating the child’s eye color; Little Green’s blue eyes do not only represent a genetic connection between the father and the child, but also represents the sadness Joni Mitchell and the child, feel about their loss. Mitchell also occasionally mentions the Northern lights and their ability to “perform.” The Northern lights are a colorful array of mystical lights that haunt the Northern skies; the different colors symbolize the different emotions the speaker is feeling: “You’re sad and you’re sorry, but you’re not ashamed.”
           
Mitchell outlines three characters in her piece. She characterizes herself and her child with the most distinctions, and supplies a small segment about the child’s assumed father. Mitchell separates herself, the author, from the speaker in the song, even though she is writing about her own experiences. Mitchell creates a distinction between her present self and her past self, by addressing herself as “you.” By speaking in the second person she is impersonalizing the story from her own point of view, and making the listener feel more involved in the story. She is allowing herself to move on from her own decisions by placing them in the point of view of another. Mitchell does not include much concrete information about the child, except for the general time of birth: “Born with the moon in Cancer.” And the child’s eye color, blue. Mitchell mentions a third character, the California man. Although it is never directly stated, he is the assumed father of Little Green. Once again little information is actually given about the man. Mitchell gives very little character description about Little Green and the California man, but goes into immense detail about the variety of emotions the speaker feels. Her purpose is to write about her experience and struggles, not to include in depth descriptions of the people involved. By placing such general information about the characters she is making the song relate to a larger group of listeners. The song is no longer just about herself and her own experiences, but also about whatever similar experiences the listeners have experienced.
   
Throughout the song Mitchell never directly tells the listener anything. Any information the listener intends to find must be found by making inferences about the text. When Mitchell describes the man who went to California, the listener infers that this man is the father of the child, Little Green. Mitchell utilizes such cryptic diction throughout the song. After reading over the lyrics several times, the listener can assume that the song is about a young woman with child, putting said child up for adoption: “Child with a child pretending.” Later, she mentions that she signs all the “papers” in the family name. These papers, in context with the rest of the lyrics, can be interpreted to represent adoption papers. Mitchell’s purpose in the puzzling choice of her diction is to create a song that is beautiful, rhythmic, and a song that needs to be heard by a thoughtful audience.
   
Mitchell controls symbolic and colorful imagery, distinct characterization, and cryptic diction all to serve an over all purpose. She writes the song to describe the painful and contrasting emotions involved in her giving up her child. Mitchell intends for her song to be relative by distancing herself, the author, from herself, the speaker. She utilizes cryptic and mystical diction that involves deep thought and inference in order to attract a thoughtful audience. She intends to have her song listened to by an audience willing to hear and translate her underlying message, that it was herself, the author, who had to go through such a tragic experience. Once the audience discovers the truth, they can evaluate the song with a more educated intensity.