Criticism Is a Mirror

“The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography.”
-Oscar Wilde

This aphorism from Wilde’s Preface essentially means that criticism ultimately reveals more about the critic than the work being criticized. When someone critiques a work of art, a person, place, phenomenon, or thing, they bring in their own values, experiences, and worldview to express their evaluation. Even when a critic tries to be objective, their emotional responses, personal history, and preferences inevitably shape what they see and how they interpret it. Critiquing at its core, as Wilde suggests, is never solely an interpretation of someone else’s work, and is ultimately a reflection of the self (whether subtle or obvious).

With this idea in mind, all criticism, whether thoughtful or shallow, reveals something about the person making it. When we judge or analyze, we go further than descriptions, and we show who we are, what we value, and what we’ve lived through. I agree with Wilde. The act of criticism is never neutral. I think a great example of this idea is Tupac Shakur’s 1993 song “Keep Ya Head Up”. Tupac’s background allowed him to create a powerful piece of criticism that reveals just as much about himself as it does about the world he’s addressing.

I believe that his biggest inspiration for this song was his mother, Afeni Shakur. Tupac focuses on the struggles faced by women, especially single black mothers. The line “I wonder why we take from our women… Why we rape our women, do we hate our women? is a critique of how women are treated, not just in society at large, but within the communities Tupac was raised in. He offers empathy to women raising children alone, as his own mother did. Growing up, Tupac saw how strong his mother had to be just to survive. He also saw how society, and sometimes the men around her, failed to support or protect her. That awareness made him sensitive to the ways women, especially Black women, are mistreated, both emotionally and physically. That’s where the song becomes more than commentary; it becomes personal.

Afeni Shakur was a member of the Black Panther Party and raised him on her own after struggling with poverty and addiction. His admiration for her, and for women like her, runs throughout the song. When he says “And since we all came from a woman, Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman,” he’s honoring that experience. His criticism of the way women are treated comes from a place of intimate knowledge. It’s rooted in love, pain, memory, and respect. It’s an autobiography in the form of a song.

When Tupac says “We ain’t meant to survive ’cause it’s a set-up”, he is referring to Black communities. He is making the audience aware of the fact that society, the government, and everyone has not done nearly enough to even repair the systematic racism that still puts innocent families in poverty. Tupac grew up in neighborhoods marked by violence, poverty, and neglect. These experiences gave him not only the authority to speak on these issues, but also the emotional weight behind his words. His understanding of systemic injustice came from what he lived through.

This is exactly what Wilde meant. Tupac’s critique of injustice is powerful because he’s speaking as a survivor, a son, and a witness. He’s not just pointing out what’s wrong with the world, but showing us how it’s affected him and the people he loves. I fully agree with Wilde’s aphorism. Whether it’s literary analysis or a rap song about injustice, criticism always reflects the person offering it.