Life in Fog - My Analysis of "Round Here"

What does it mean to grow up? What does it mean to truly understand the world in which we live? Once we begin the journey offered in adulthood is it possible to possess “childlike” innocence? Can one be alive yet “dead”? What role does the notion of right and wrong play in our society? The song, “Round Here” written by Adam Duritz, fights with these questions. Through an exegetical new critical analysis of the lyric it will show that when an individual “grows up” if the notion of right and wrong is skewed, feign attempts at life will ultimately result in absolute despair. The analysis of this lyric will require a work in expository exegesis due to the linear progression of the story contained within the song. I will however highlight the central oppositions at the outset to clarify the minor oppositions and the plot development throughout. The central oppositions are Child v. Adult; Life v. Death; White v. Gray where white symbolizes the moral law and gray symbolizes some undefined notion of relativism. The first verse contains the first glimpse of the child v. adult and white v. gray oppositions. The singer steps outside into a foggy (gray) environment where “no one notices the contrast of white on white/ and Angels get a better view/ of the crumbling difference between wrong and right” (3-6). A paradox is created by this white environment. People see it as fog, yet this does nothing to change that it is really just white on white. With the conclusion of the verse we learn that the protagonist believes in this moral law e.g. “Round here, we always stand up straight” (12). Almost like an obedient child who follows the “moral law” dictated by their parents. We also learn that Maria, possibly his love, believes she is dying which the singer cannot understand, likely due to his innocence. However, Maria does seem to understand the source of her turmoil. The second verse through several oppositions centered on Maria develops her character substantially. The fourteenth line alerts us to the fact that Maria has come from Nashville with her suitcase. One could easily interpret this as meaning she has in some way failed in a musical endeavor. The opposition of hope v. despair is thus introduced. Within the second line she announces that she wants to meet a boy who looks like Elvis. This is significant due to the fact that Duritz, the songs author, is a scruffy looking guy compared to the clean cut Elvis. The opposition between beauty and ugly is developed in a way that is mutually exclusive in experience concerning the singer or Maria. The singer could defiantly be psychological hurt by this gesture whereas Maria is obviously fighting her despair. In the sixteenth line one of the key ideas to unlocking this song is posited. Maria is on a high wire, the entire world is looking at her and her failure, and the sick part is many among the spectators are probably cheering for her fall. She is then painted completely as a paradox. “She takes her clothes off/ She says she’s close to understanding Jesus” (18-19). She understands that these two things cannot go together she understands she is misunderstood. Her realization of this inconsistency causes her to be nervous, and it takes no scientist to know that being nervous on a high wire can be deadly. The question then must be asked, why get on the wire if so much toil awaits? To find beauty, the aesthetic is what waits on the other side of the wire. So the verse ends with a declaration that we all want to “carve out our names” i.e. find beauty, and to do so we will roar like a lion or sacrifice as one would a lamb. The result Maria falls from the wire a foreshadowing of her death. In the bridge we begin to see more clearly the most central opposition which is that of child v. adult. The singer cries out for the innocent children to run away from this gray world which would allow such an evil high wire to exist. He argues from the image of a child that there is safety in innocence. Then in the final verse we see the conclusion to the three central oppositions. It begins with Maria saying that her desire to kill herself is “only in my head” (31). This may be recognized as an opposition between mind and body where Maria would be saying that her mind is leading her to contemplate this action. Maria then says that her “walls are crumbling” these walls would be everything in the second verse i.e. her vocational hope, libido, religion the crumbling of which caused her to be nervous. This results in her jumping off a building, truly falling off the high wire. And now you have our singer, does he jump as well? Most likely not, but one thing is certain the innocence he cried for in the bridge the innocence that prevented him from understanding Maria’s crying in the first verse is absolutely gone. The opposition of life v. death is at the forefront as he grows up to being truly an adult. The paradox is formed, can one who is now dead still be alive, or the inverse can one who is alive be in some respect dead? He now can freely do the things a child would want to such as stay up late, but they now amount to nothing. Yet certainly, he is now on the same high wire as Maria and he sees the same gray fog and he is horrified. He depicts this with the phrase “I’m under the gun” (49). Contained in this plea is the horrifying irony of the lyric “I said I’m under the gun round here/ I’m innocent, I’m under the gun round here” (49-50). Now that he understands the evil of the fog he wants to go back to the childlike innocence he used to know, but he can’t. A tension is created by the almost mute scream to end the song “I can’t see nothing/ Nothing round here” (51-52). It seems then that the fulcrum thus rests on the notion of right and wrong. If you forgo this idea for some form of inconsistent morality you belittle the high wire and thus cause the real emotion of despair. Adulthood would then be one constant falling from the goal of the aesthetic.