Why? (7)

There is always that one celebrity who pretty much just goes crazy. They lose themselves in the fame. It is especially shown in today’s celebrities, such as Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and many more. The writer of “Down In A Hole” by Alice in Chains is Layne Staley. He expresses how he became depressed and self-depreciated of himself. He is one of the many celebrities who gets tied up in the fame.

In the 1990’s, Staley become very addicted to a variety of drugs. These drugs included heroin, marijuana, LSD, cocaine, and ecstasy. He died in 2002 from injecting an extremely large amount of heroin and cocaine.

Throughout the song, he uses irony, simile, metaphor, and repeatedly anaphora. After becoming a drug addict, he found himself becoming depressed. There is this saying, “You are digging yourself into a deeper hole,” which means you are just getting yourself into a big mess. He uses “down in a hole” to show that he is in a big mess and he can’t get out of it now. The anaphora that is used is repeating that he is down in a hole at the beginning of each line in the chorus. When he says “…flowers in a tomb…in bloom,” shows irony. Flowers are supposed to be beautiful when they are blooming. A tomb makes you think of death and sad and gloomy. At the end of the song when he states “I’d like to fly but my wings have been so denied,” he uses it as a metaphor to say that he wishes things were back to the way they used to be when he first started. Now that he is addicted to drugs, he can’t soar anymore in his career. His example of a simile is “see my heart I decorate it like a grave.” Once again when someone thinks of a grave they think death and gloomy. A grave is all dark. His heart is dark. The line, “I have been guilty of kicking myself in the teeth,” is just saying that he has been tearing himself up inside for his stupid mistakes. He lets us know that he will keep everything to his self when he says, “ I will speak no more of my feelings beneath.”

His depressive, self-depreciating, helpless ridiculed tone sets an argument of forensics. He blames his self for the many things he can’t do now because of his mistakes. He could be trying to get the message of what drugs really do to you out there to people who may or may not do drugs already. Before this argument they may think it was a cool thing to do but now they realize it isn’t so cool what happens to you in the long run. The addict’s appeal to the audience is very emotional, which shows pathos.

Staley’s overall argument is just not to get involved in those situations that he put himself in because it doesn’t really get you any where in life. I agree with what he says. Why would you want to throw your whole life away on drugs? I just believe that to be immature and insane. If you have a good life why would you want to turn it bad? I just don’t understand what would make someone want to do such a thing.