I feel like all of the texts we read this semester can feel represented by this line. with labor and with poverty there is a generational context, you're paying for what your lineage did or didn't do, and a lot of them are about upward mobility and the pursuit of that and what toll it takes. I think this sense of descent is really interesting and its a common consequence for the characters who step out of their roles in the literature of labor.

this touches on the loneliness that is a side-effect of labor, you're isolated from the things in your life that you want to be close to. this song frames it as a positive this isolation is an escape and an opportunity to delve into the truer self. where as in what work the poem from what work is we see a flip of that isolation, "you think you see your own brother ahead of you...you rub your glasses with your fingers, and of course it's someone elses brother." Levine creates a fog that isolates his speaker from everyone else, Springsteen creates darkness between his characters and the rest of the world.

this reminds me of the scene in one of the dagoberto gilb stories when the protagonist is waiting outside the library and flirts with the idea of accepting having nowhere to live. While this Springsteen line is alluding to holding something in and Gilb's is about holding onto something, the tension is the same. they both depict a constant strain. they both romanticize a release.

the "hunger" i feel points directly to "life in the iron mills" and the woman made of Korl, and how awareness of everything you deserve in the context of working can be perceived as "wild" and "eager." Springsteens hunger is through a more "romantic" perspective but satiating both hungers come with sacrifice and repercussions. both of these stories aim to prove that only certain people can indulge without consequence.

This reminds me of the fear that Martin Eden had for his future when he was averting the women of his "caste." he feared his own future if he continued to be a laborer and didn't get any success as a writer and the he judged the women in his community as an avenue for that fear. Springsteen is achieving something similar, the "girl" is withering at the consequences of the speakers lifestyle and the speakers actions. shes with someone who's sense of fulfillment comes through escaping their reality.