All Around Me By Flyleaf Essay

“All Around Me” by Flyleaf is a song sung through the eyes of the protagonist, which is indicated by the use of: I, I’m, my, and me. Though listeners would view “All Around Me” as a song of the grieving of a loved one, a deeper look into the lyrics reveals a tale of a drug addict’s face-off between her former self and the drug that she is addicted to. Imagine being in an emotional game tug-of-war between an addiction and your life. Who would be there for you? We can see this face-off through her: outcries, reaction to seeing her former self, act of transcending to a secret place, repetition of “I’m alive,” exchange with the drug, and surrender.
The first way that this interpretation is displayed is through the narrator’s initial outcry.
My hands are searching for you
My arms are outstretched towards you
I feel you on my fingertips
My tongue dances behind my lips for you (1-4)
The narrator knows that somewhere deep inside, her former self is still there. When you are looking for something, you only reach for what you’re looking for if you are sure that it is there. The outstretching of the narrator’s arms signifies this. When something grazes your fingertips, you assume that whatever it is, is pretty close. So, the narrator incorporates our sense of touch so we can imagine and or feel what is going on in the following quote, “I feel you on my fingertips,” (3) which is the fact that the presence of her former self is getting stronger and nearer. She also uses this line…