Tracy Chapman describes the journey a young girl takes on the fast track to becoming an adult in the poem "Fast Car". The story expresses the hardships she faces with the people she loves and her search for a better way of life. The word fast in the poem is used in several different meanings. The speed of the car is the fastest way she has to escape to an awaiting adventure far way (1). She feels the faster she can get away the more exciting her life will be.
             Fast is not only referring to the speed of the car but the speed of her life. She wants to be on the fast track to growing up. She yearns for her and the man, she loves to find a high paying job and not have to work their way slowly up the corporate ladder (40). She quickly finds herself pregnant (46) and then on the fast track to becoming a single mother (50).
             The girl in the poem is a hard worker who through out her young life has put the needs of others before her own (24). Her Farther is an alcoholic who does not hold a job and who needs more care than his wife can give him (18). They cannot depend on the Father to support her and the Mother and so the wife decided to leave. The Mother not only left the Father behind but also the girl who now has to support the family (21). The Father then places this burden of taking care of him "I said somebody's got to take care of him" (23) and the burden of supporting the family on the girl. She is forced by her circumstances to move further into the adult world where she will have to find a job and no longer attend school (24). There is no one around to pick up the pieces of her life except herself. This hardship has forced her to search for a way out of this mess she now calls her life. She feels that her life is so bad and she is willing to go anywhere as fast as possible (2). She continues to show her hard work when it comes to raising her children. Once again, it is put in her lap to take care
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