Song analysis of "Figure.09"

Love and relationships can be tricky. Sometimes they work out well and at other times they fail. The band Linkin Park writes songs dealing with such themes, as well as other topics. One of their famous songs, coming from their 2003 album Meteora, deals with the idea of what happens when someone has liked someone else for a while, let them go, but cannot stop thinking about that person. In their song “Figure.09”, Linkin Park use metaphor and hyperbole as an integral part of their message of the pain and anguish caused by letting go of someone who a person has liked for some time.

Linkin Park use hyperbole as their primary means of communicating the message of this song. The first example is when Mike Shinoda says, “It’s like nothing I can do would distract me when/I think of how I shot myself in the back again” (Lines 3-4). The point here is that he could not stop thinking about how he hurt himself for the sake of the other person. Another prominent use of hyperbole is the repetition of the lines, “Giving up a part of me/I’ve let myself become you”, to mean that his whole daily life is so enveloped with this other person that he has effectively “become” that person due to his own doing.

There is other figurative language that cannot really be classified, but still poses strong meaning for the song. One such use is the repetition of the motif of the thoughts never going away: “Never goes away” is repeated as the last part before the chorus. By far the best part of the song is when Chester screams, “Get away from ME!” (Line 43), because he is finally standing up for himself and telling the symbol of his pain to leave him alone.

With the trickiness of everything that goes on in a failed relationships, it is no surprise that Linkin Park writes songs about it. They are a strong band that relates to young people. Their song “Figure .09” relates to one who has lost a relationship but still cannot stop thinking about that person. Through hyperbole and other language, they make their message very clear.