What does She Don't Want the World mean?

3 Doors Down: She Don't Want the World Meaning

Tagged:   No tags, suggest one.
Album cover for She Don't Want the World album cover

She Don't Want the World Lyrics

The open wound she hides
She just keeps it bundled up
And never lets it show
She can't take much more of this
But she can't let it go
And that's ok, she don't want the world

All the things she says
While he's just lying there
Without...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 31st 2011 !⃝

    I personally felt this song was about a girl struggling with an abusive relationship - emotional or physical. The music and the way the lyrics are sung makes me think the girl he's singing about is the "victim" in whatever situation she's in - but she's fighting within herself to be happy despite the hurt she feels.

    "The open wound she hides
    She just keeps it bundled up
    And never lets it show
    She can't take much more of this
    But she can't let it go
    And that's ok, she don't want the world"

    This could be an actual wound or the internal feeling of an emotional wound from abusive words. Either way - a person in this situation would hide it. She can't take any more of what is hurting her - but she loves the person who IS hurting her. It's typical of the abuser to go in cycles - the hurt - then they try and fix it by being overly nice only to fly off the handle again. This is why she can't let go. Or perhaps she can't afford to leave him. She's not asking for the world, she just wants him to stop hurting her.

    "All the things she says
    While he's just lying there
    Without someone to hear her cry
    She slips off into a dream
    About a place to hide
    And that's ok, she don't want the world"

    She's talking and he's not listening. My interpretation of this is that she's trying to tell him that he's hurting her and asking him to change - he's not listening so she cries herself to sleep because she knows deep down he doesn't care and won't change. She dreams of somewhere she'd rather be - without him. She's not dreaming of anything special - just to be away from the pain.

    "This love she feels
    Everything she's ever known
    Or ever thought was real
    Seems like it's been thrown away
    Now how's she gonna live
    It's ok, she don't want the world"

    She's starting to doubt everything - this happens a lot when a person is abused. Does she love him or is she just frightened to leave? She's wondering if she threw away the life she had before this relationship. She's not the girl she was then and she's wondering how she's going to live when she's broken now.

    "Those words he never spoke
    Haunt her life, the memories
    Of all the times before
    She tried to show him love
    While he would only ask for more
    But it's ok, she don't want the world"

    He's never complimented her - only put her down. She has no confidence and is longing for him to tell her she's ok. She keeps loving him but its never enough. He takes her love for granted and demands more. But its ok - she's not asking for the world.

    "Softly in her sleep
    Pictures of the life she's longing
    For slowly appear
    She's seen them all before
    But somehow never quite this clear
    She just smiles, she don't want the world"

    Again she's dreaming of getting out, but this time it feels more like she's could actually make it happen. She smiles. It's not amazing - but all she needs to be away from him to feel ok again.

    "This love she feels
    Everything she's ever known
    Or ever thought was real
    Seems like it's been thrown away
    Now how's she gonna live
    It's ok, she don't want the world"

    This is repeated because again she's thinking about how she was without him. She's still frightened of how she's going to live when she feels so broken.

    "A brand new morning shines
    As she wakes up alone again
    This time to face the day
    She swears there's time to make it
    As she simply walks away
    And it's ok, she don't want the world"

    She wakes up after seeing her dreams clearly to a shining brand new morning. To get through the day, she's telling herself she CAN make it out. Something's changed in her and I feel that she's going to walk away. She's not expecting to be able to go somewhere wonderful - just away.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 26th 2014 !⃝

    I feel every word of this song, it unfortunately describes my current situation exactly. I agree with many of the posts here. I think its definitly a story of a broken life and the multiple dissapointments that end up culminating in this one relationship that gave her hope for a change or a true love to save her from giving up on hope for happiness in life. I definitly sense emotional abuse within the relationship and the shattered heart from watching the relationship turn on her and harm her further than previous scars have. Its about the devestation of not having the one you love hear you or protect you from harm. If the person you love the most cant do this the idea of living on free of pain is hopeless. She becomes stuck in a cycle of hoping it will change to living with the world without him as empty as it is. The self doubt that it creates is overwelming and its hard to move on with her life. Depression sets in as she sees that everything that has ever made sense to her or defined her as a person was misunderstood or unwanted by this person. She may have turned to addiction to try and numb the pain but that only drives her further into herself and isiolates her from the world.Her dreams are somewhat closer to the life she knows she deserves but when shes awake her mind wont stop obsessing over the pain and its a struggle from the morning when she wakes up alone and in pain until night when she sleeps. I dont see an end to the cycle in the end which is sad, it perfectly captures depression and the diffculty in breaking your mind free of repeated negativity and let downs. When a heart has been broken enough and youve suffered pain over many years it only gets harder to pick yourself up. I feel for anyone going through this and hope that all of you find your strength wether its the first time or the last of many set backs. Love can be illusion sometimes and letting go of someone that once gave you the gratest happiness and contintment can be shattering. I just try to remember that sadness is a beautiful human emotion it reminds us that we have the ability to love and that in itself is the most beautiful thing you can posses.

  3. trialsntribulations101
    click a star to vote
    Jul 24th 2021 !⃝

    My interpretation is she in a relationship that is toxic. She's giving her all loves him but she isn't getting the same back. Finally she get s it that it isn't going to be the way she dreams it to be so she leaves. I'm going through this very same battle..

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Sep 12th 2020 !⃝

    My interpretation of this song is different. I think we interpret as it pertains to our own life.
    I personally suffered so much abuse throughout my entire life.
    Never finding what I was looking for.
    It actually just fractured me because I always had my kids and they were the center of my universe.
    I lost my mom and that was a huge blow. I felt like my life was turned upside down. I didn't think anything could hurt me anymore than this.
    Then my youngest son became an addict. I felt like I was broken before, but now, I am more than broken.
    So when I hear this song. I feel it so deeply. I am depressed. I suffer from PTSD. I have health problems that have just continously gotten worse. I have an open wound inside of me that I hide.
    I can't share it. I am alone.
    I am so depressed and so broken, but I can't let it go or walk away.
    After years of dealing with this. My son is a shell of himself.
    I am a shell of myself as well.
    I can't talk to my son anymore. He is emotionally unavailable.
    I can't talk to most anyone.
    Everyone is tired of it and they don't want to hear about it or know about it.
    He has slowly driven almost everyone away from him.
    I can't have a life, and the more I see how ugly people really are, I don't even want to try. As far as relationships go, I loathe myself for failing, I don't think I have it in myself to ever fall in love with anyone.
    Most people would say walk away from my son, but I can't.
    Sometimes I think I can heal myself a little and make things better for myself. I dream about it. I think of dettaching but, I just don't have it in me to actually do it.
    Sometimes I have hope that he will stop using.
    So I wake up everyday alone.
    Slowly sinking down the rabbit hole my son has pulled me into, still maintaining but waiting for it all to just end.
    Anyways that is how I relate to this song.

  5. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jan 2nd 2020 !⃝

    I have...know to well ...wat she means she don't want the world neither do I....we want all to stop
    ..to just be ok....we find peace n r sleep when it comes. The addict in us become r pain releaver


  6. Itsmylife
    click a star to vote
    Sep 18th 2019 !⃝

    After reading the other interpretations, I’ve come to the conclusion that since each life is different, each interpretation is different. So, here is my life’s interpretation of this song (which I recently listened to and also felt a strong connection as if it was written for me).

    My life. A woman who has given 26 yrs of her life as a mother and wife. Someone who gave 200% for them. Encouraging and supporting their dreams while giving up all of her own dreams. Children are now grown. Husband has always put his career and material things ahead of her. He currently lives in another state as he chases his dreams... leaving her home alone and lonely.

    She is stoic and never tells anyone the awful pain she hides inside. She always pretends her life is wonderful but isn’t sure how much longer she can keep this up because the pain, sadness and loneliness keep growing inside.

    She tries to tell her husband how she is feeling but he never hears her because he’s so focused on the successes and path for his own dreams. So, she frequently cries herself to sleep alone only finding the life and love she does not have in her dreams.

    She doesn’t want to give up on the relationship because how could she go on? This is the only life she’s known.

    She thinks showing her husband more love would make a difference but in the end he just expected more from her.

    While she sleeps, she fantasizes about love with someone else and one day, with clarity, begins to believe that her dream to be loved may be possible. She seeks what she thinks is love in another’s arms.

    But then she realizes that the love she thought she had found in those arms was not about loving her either and that this relationship, too, was only about satisfying his needs. Just like her life at home. So, again she feels as though she is not loved and struggles to find the will to go on.

    In the end, she wakes up alone (as she does every day) with the hope that this time, this day... she can find the strength to walk away from both bad relationships. Because she’s not asking for much... she doesn’t want the world. She just wants to be loved.

    But, again.. the ending of the song does not suggest she succeeds. She just hopes each new day will bring the strength she needs as she wakes and quietly walks away to begin her day.

    my life... my interpretation.


  7. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Sep 1st 2019 !⃝

    To me when it's says She don't want the world...it means she wanted her life with the man she loved and their family...she doesn't care about all the other shit in the world
    She's left emotionally disconnected from him because he doesn't have the ability to connect with her in the way she needs.
    I see her with their children all the time with no adult support
    She lays awake while he sleeps with nobody to talk to He is most likely emotionally abusive towards her and she is trapped she can't quite let it go but also she can't take anymore of it
    She dreams of a place to hide but has no place to go and nobody to help her
    He may have manipulated her for years and she gave up every thing and everyone for the family life she dreamed of having
    Now she's full of pain grief and deep lonliness with man that's left her with nothing and nowhere to go
    She gave more and more to get that love she craved
    In the end it was all an illusion she is left older and having to go out and face the world she doesn't like and has feared facing all alone

  8. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Dec 18th 2018 !⃝

    A father molesting his daughter.

  9. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 8th 2018 !⃝

    She Don't Want The World lyrics, it is well explained.

    I totally agree with comment from June 26, 2014 at 6:37 pm. Correct, LOVE is only an ILLUSION. That's why people should not make a mistake and think that they ARE IN LOVE when it is only an ILLUSION.

    Plus, if ever you made these same mistakes several times. Ha ha.. I made these mistake twice. Possibly you only have a huge crush on them and it's not love. Accept that they only see you as a friend. Cut off the communication especially if they first ended it. Wish them well. And move forward with your life.

  10. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 16th 2018 !⃝

    This is about a married woman, maybe a mom too... who puts her dreams aside and lives contently with less than she had hoped for. Her husband is disconnected from her. Takes her for granted, and eventually leaves her. She dreams of what she could have been. A wife who pours herself into her family... Isn't the hot girl any more, hubby looks at women, in person or on line... ignores his wife's talking... talks only about himself... satisfies only himself.

  11. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Dec 6th 2017 !⃝

    This is a suicide by drug overdose song.

    She don’t want the world (doesn’t want to be or care if she is in this world anymore)

    The open wound she hides.
    She can’t take much more of this but she can’t let it go (holding onto a painful event she can’t get past and could also refer to her drug addiction)

    All the things she says while he’s just lying there without someone to hear her cry (he’s passed out, or already overdosed and she’s crying)

    She slips off into a dream about a place to hide. (She just got high to escape her reality)

    Everything she’s ever known or ever thought was real seems like it’s been thrown away, now hows she gonna live? (All of her emotional support is gone, probably sold her possessions for drug money)

    Those words he never spoke haunt her like the memories of all the times before (Words of compassion, the times before when they have overdosed but she didn’t die)

    She tried to show him love while he would only ask for more. (He is asking her for more drugs - he doesn’t want love)

    Softly in her sleep pictures of the life she’s longing for slowly appear, she seen them all before but never quite this clear.. (she seeing her life before getting suicidal - for whatever reason she’s upset - flash before her eyes while she’s high)

    She wakes up alone again, this time to face the day. She swears this time to make it as she simply walks away ... (whoever she was getting high with either left or died, but she doesn’t really care - she’s going to get more drugs and this time she is going to do enough to get the job done)


    It is a very beautiful melody and somewhat haunting song.

  12. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 3rd 2017 !⃝

    My interpretation is the song is indeed about a girl struggling with depression. It would seem that she has suffered some kind of abuse or several disappointments from past relationships. To me "She doesn't want the world" means that she wants happiness. She wants to maintain healthy relationships in her life. Something that should be completely obtainable. Unfortunately, people accept the love they think they deserve. Consciously she knows she deserves better.Subconsciously she must not feel that she deserves to be loved. As she continues to show love towards a man that abuse's her emotionally or does not want her. She may be an easy target as she already suffers from depression. She seems uncertain that she will ever obtain the happiness she seeks. She doesn't want sympathy, she is determined to meet every day with a smile, every day she will try to let go of her past in hopes of moving forward to a happy future. Even if she never finds this happiness, she will certainly never give up trying.

  13. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 18th 2017 !⃝

    I take this song as a girl whos in a bad relationship with someone who takes and tears her down. She dreams that one day she will find someone who truley loves her who sees her.. she is struggling scared depressed and wants to leave but knows its harder than what it seems..so she wakes up knumb and faces the day with no emotions...at night when she sleeps thats where she finds love a place she wants so bad...

  14. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 22nd 2012 !⃝

    Something happened, obviously, something bad, and she will never recover from it. Call it abuse, call it rape, call it a broken heart, or her parents' scorn, or a friend's betrayal; whatever it is, she can't come back form it, at least not all the way. She dreams of her past, of what-ifs and maybe's and all the mistakes she made and that others made to lead her to the situation she's in now.

    She wants the world to just STOP for a while, to leave her alone to cope, to hide away from everything and lick her wounds in private. But her heart's still beating, and the world's still turning. She can't kill herself because she's holding so tightly to the past that self-torment keeps her alive, but that means she can't live fully in the present, either.

    She can see all the possibilities of the future before her, all the things that she could be or could have been--and she believes, completely, that none of those things were ever meant to come true, or be real. She's become cold and hard and cynical; she thinks she will never have "the life she's longing for". It has become so ingrained in her soul that she will settle for what she can get to keep breathing--and brooding on the past--and hiding away from reality--because she knows that she will never be able to have the world, and unlike the cliche, she doesn't want what she can't have.

  15. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 4th 2011 !⃝

    I think it is a song about a women who is having an affair with a married man. She is deeply in love with him, but knows he will never leave his wife. "She wakes up alone again" because he has gone back home to his wife. "She swears there's time to make it
    As she simply walks away" this time she is going to leave him/end the affair for good.

  16. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 21st 2011 !⃝

    I personally agree with Anonymous on March 22nd, although most of them to a certain degree are right. She sees a life with this person, and he is her world. He knows he is what she has based her life around, and he takes advantage of it. She stays there hoping for a change in the days.. and knowing that he is capable of being the person that she fell in love with. She holds onto it until she realizes that it will never be. She doesn't know what it feels like to not have pain. She knows that it isnt right...and she doesn't want that world.. she wants the one where it feels like home in a sense... To her that is real.. not the life she is living in. May I say.. God Bless anyone going through this. I feel your pain...I have been there... and it does get better but only if YOU choose to make a change. Please dont let fear guide you. My Story (continue reading only if you please-sharing my story ) ~ I was with this guy who I had fell in love with. He changed horribly. Before I got with him.. I had a history of family abusing me mentally and physically. So when he showed signs of abuse it was nothing new. I was addicted to the pain and at the end I realized that, which lead me to a different chapter. But before I realized that.. I thought he could change. Don't get me wrong people can change.. but only in due time.. you cant make it happen.. much less waste your life waiting on it to happen just bc you love them!! I felt every word of this song.. and every day I knew that something had to change. He was cheating on me.. doing drugs behind my back (which i heard from friends, but never saw in front of me). I was on my way to his house when I was listening to Give Me a Sign by Breaking Benjamin, which I also felt every word. I was praying to God and telling myself that I wasn't going to allow it anymore. I didnt know how to escape what I was feeling.. this love I had for him, but my new findings.. which was love for myself and my future... I was afraid to walk away bc I didn't know what the future held. I got to his house and we were on a break.. my one last chance of warning him... but afraid again bc I was at his house ..you see lol. I spent the night there. The next day the phone rang. It was a girl. He said infront of me while we were trying to work stuff out... " naw you dont have to worry about her... we aren't together." Then he hung up the phone and tried talking to me bc I grabbed my keys. He said "whats wrong".. my reply "Im not obligated to discuss nothing with you" and I headed for the door. He grabbed me and slammed me on the wall and started choking me. I punched him and made my break for it. Somehow he caught up with me on the porch outside.. he rushed me.. thats when I realized he had a knife. I fought for MY LIFE until some old couple noticed and called the police and the cops got there. THAT WAS MY SIGN FROM GOD! I let my "world" and what I was used to run my life. I forgot all about what I knew was right. The whole time I knew me and him were wrong. I was just too afraid. In that time.. I lost all dignity..respect.. and everything possible for myself. I was LOST! I let it get that far.. so i cant be mad at no one but me. Dont let it get that far if you are in a relationship to where he is constantly lieing, cheating, abusing the situation in ANY way... LEAVE!!! you are worth so much more and are so much better than that.. and can find better... AND CAN DO BAD BY YOURSELF!!!! I can say I was dumb, but I BET... it wont happen again :). After I left and placed an order of protection on him.. I realized I could not even hold my head up in public, I was lieing to my friends and people I loved..and was taking them all for granted.. basically i wasn't being me. Shit has changed and Im happier than ever.. and I can say now that Im back to being me. FCK EVERYONE WHO SHOWS YOU ANY KIND OF DISRESPECT!! FCK'EM! lol!! TELL THEM THAT YOU ARE RICH BITCH!!! even if ya only got a half a penny!!! Lol you are all you need. this next statement is off subject~ plz ignore~ FCK A HERO.. I AM MY OWN... EVEN IF YOU HELPED ME... YOU ARENT HERE ARE YA?? SO FCK YOU.. YOU WASN'T THE HERO I THOUGHT YOU WERE.. HA HA RUN TELL THAT!!!!

  17. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 22nd 2011 !⃝

    I think these lyrics are talking about a girl who is going through depression. Not in the sense that she wants to kill herself, more as her just wanting to be ok one day. The song seems like its saying she's had a rough life. And although its a painful life, she seems to be addicted to the pain itself. The guy she refers to is there next to her, yet she still feels lonely. Her sleep and dreams seem like her escape from the hole she's stuck in. To me, it seems that a lot of people in her life have let her down and therefore she might not believe love exists. In general, all she's asking is for someone to make her ok, not to love her, or to stay, just make her ok. It appears that she feels like she is failing in the relationship she is in, as if she wasnt enough. She has a clear perception of the life she wants and its not too much to ask, its just her smiling, and being ok. Overall, it seems like she takes a day at a time. And every morning she wakes up, hoping to be ok, and hoping that everything wrong in her life gets better.

‹ prev 12



More 3 Doors Down songs »


 


Latest Articles

 


Submit Your Interpretation

[ want a different song? ]




Just Posted

All The Good Girls Go To Hell anonymous
Wingriddenangel anonymous
I Spoke to The Devil in Miami anonymous
This Woman's Work anonymous
Action! Not Words anonymous
Everybody Loves Me, Baby anonymous
Fall in to Sleep anonymous
Lemon Boy anonymous
Drama Club anonymous
Gravity anonymous
Our First Time anonymous
Nymphetamine anonymous
Liquid Smooth anonymous
Teddy Bear anonymous
New Divide anonymous

(We won't give out your email)