Characters and speaker

The song “The River” by Bruce Springsteen was inspired by Springsteen’s sister and brother-in-law. The speaker (Bruce Springsteen) adopts the voice and the perspective of the brother-in-law in order to depict a painful reality. The main characters of the song are, then, the speaker and Mary.

The speaker

The speaker begins by presenting his origins and place of birth: “the valley” (l. 1). Notice how the speaker's place of birth is not given any specific name. On the one hand, it may mean that the place is not important and that disappointment is characteristic to everyone, no matter the origin. On the other hand, not mentioning a name may be related to the modest conditions in which the narrator was brought up.

From the very beginning, the speaker’s life seems to be set in stones:

I come from down in the valley
Where mister when you're young
They bring you up to do like your daddy done (ll. 1-3)

The speaker does not seem to have a choice; he is bound to follow the same path as his ancestors. The valley is not a place which encourages people to spread their wings and find new paths in life; on the contrary, it is a place of stagnation, conformity and mediocrity.

In high school, the speaker meets Mary. She becomes a central poi...