“Back to Black” by Amy Winehouse carries the theme that loss causes you to go back to what you knew before you lost something or someone in your life, including to go back to the moments of when you still had that person or thing in your life. In this case, the song is about a relationship and how Amy’s ex-boyfriend went back to his old girlfriend and how Amy instead went back to her addiction and her dark times after their breakup, which is shown through the lyrics “You go back to her and I go back to black” (Winehouse). Amy shows how she tried to be strong in the beginning of the song with the lyric “me and my head high, and my tear drys, get on without my guy” (Winehouse) but she later gets into lyrics like “so far removed from what we went through” (Winehouse) and “I love you much, it’s not enough” (Winehouse) and these lyrics, as well as her pleading tone throughout the song, show that she isn’t truly okay with the loss and how far it sent her back to a spiral of addiction and depression. Even though she tries to muster up her pride and get on with her new life without her ex-boyfriend she can’t deny how much pain this is causing her since he has seemed to have forgotten about her and their relationship. …show more content…
Another way that she describes the breakup is when she used the simile “And life is like a pipe, and I’m a tiny penny rollin’ up the walls inside” (Winehouse) to explain that she feels about as in control and as stable as a penny rolling aimlessly around inside of a pipe. Amy feels out of control after the breakup, which is why she goes back to what she knows to gain some familiarity and comfort, even if what is helping her cope is doing more harm than