At the basis of every relationship is commitment. Commitment is needed from both sides for the relationship to thrive. With only one side showing commitment, it will not last. In turn, these types of relationships are not worth fighting for. Committing to a relationship can be an issue for many people, whether they afraid or whatever the reason maybe they try to avoid committing by usually ending a relationship before that happens. This idea is portrayed through the lyrics of many different break up songs, when one person leaves another person because of the fear of commitment. Death Cab for Cutie shares their view on the fear of commitment in a relationship through the use of figurative language and diction within the lyrics of a couple of their songs.
A peculiar idea on the fear commitment is revealed in Death Cab for Cutie's "Your Heart Is An Empty Room" and "Someday You Will Be Loved" through the band's powerful use of figurative language. Death Cab for Cutie writes in the second stanza of "Your Heart Is An Empty Room," "Home's face, how it ages when you're away/Spring blooms and you find the love that's true/But you don't know what now to do/'Cause the chase is all you know/And she stopped running months ago." Distinctly, the speaker is talking to a person who found a girl he liked and ended up getting into a relationship with her, but then the person did nothing else with the relationship out of fear of committing. The speaker compares two unlike things and gives a non-human thing human characteristics and actions - specifically through the use of a metaphor and personification: "Home's face" referring to the girl he likes. Similarly, in "Someday You Will Be Loved," Death Cab for Cutie writes, "I once knew a girl/In the years of my youth/With eyes like the summer/All beauty and truth/In the morning I fled/Left a note and it read/Someday you will be loved." Clearly, the speaker ended the relationship before it went any further because he was afraid of commitment.
