Girl

I don't know if this song is about Tori or just about a random girl. I read somewhere that she said in an interview that it was about a part of her personality. I can relate to that.

I think all of us have an "inner child" who will always be with us - a part of us who will never give up on who we wanted to be.

The song in this case is about Tori always being what her parents and then her fans wanted her to be: being everybody else's girl and never her own. It features a conflict between the adult - who she is - and the girl she used to be that still dreams.

This is a deeply symbolic song which says to me that it is personally about Tori – otherwise why bother with all the symbols?

------My long interpretation-----

The shadows of the first verse will then be the shadows of Tori's subconscious where the repressed girl cries out for attention and tries to break through. Her photograph is faded because she is a thing of the past. The "image" carries a double meaning because it can mean a picture but can also mean her public self. Tori’s current image is under the control of the girl. “yes” is not a simple yes – it comes with a silent message from her heart which can be interpreted as the voice of the girl.

“They” is not specific – it’s everyone and they only stay in the doorway of her heart. The violins filled with water is an image of great sadness because if I violin becomes filled with water it is destroyed. Violins may be symbolic of her hopes or dreams or aspirations and the public laughs as they are destroyed. She makes use of plant symbols in the bluebells and later the cherrytrees. Bluebells are said to help prevent nightmares, but even screaming the nightmare of the crowd laughing at her, won’t go away.

Cherry trees are a symbol of friendship. Even though the Tori in the song is not even 17 yet she has already been hurt by life: falling down as the coldness of life takes away another friend – which is an important thing to someone who lives for others.

The lyrics interlaced with the second chorus are complex but I think it’s more of a reflection of where her life is at the moment and how she smothers her dreams and desires or how they are smothered by those who try to help her cope with her feelings of depression–doctors/therapists/pharmacists. Rivers are always symbolic of life and her life’s energy is now spreading thin because of limitations and the fact that her dreams have as much chance of coming true as pigs flying. DOT is directly observed treatment/therapy where medical staff or a therapist will watch to make sure the patient takes the right number of pills etc. this seems the most sensible meaning for dots. While those who try and help her are kept safe from being affected by her depression by their professional distance (white coats, perfect hair dos, turbid blue uniforms), she is forced to smothers the voice in her heart (the one sending the silent message?).

Yet the girl is still in the mist of her consciousness even though castles (fairytale dreams) are being destroyed in her heart. Even though Tori twists to escape the life she’s living, at the same time she is clinging to it: she still rides to work every morning even though she is wondering why. The answer is simple: when she was little she was told to sit in the chair and be good and become everything that others wanted her to be. The medical people (mentioned above) try to help Tori by going into her subconscious (“the white coats enter her room”) and Tori (now in the present tense) is calling for the girl trying to find out who she really is and hoping one day she will be able to be herself.