Shadow
The shadow as a figure of the self's reflection, growth, and the parts of identity that try to escape - drawn from Peter Pan's escaped shadow and from broader shadow-as-self traditions. In Taylor's writing, shadows represent the parts of a person (or the memory of a person) that persist in ghostly, insubstantial form.
The insubstantial trace of a person or relationship - present as outline but not as substance. Connected to Peter Pan's shadow as self-reflection and growth that has escaped the person, and to the everyday experience of chasing someone's memory in ordinary life.
Appears in 1 song
“Chasin' shadows in the grocery line”
Shadow as the trace-presence of James in Betty's adult life, visible as outline in the most ordinary places (the grocery line), the figure she keeps almost-seeing in everyday space. The image draws on Peter Pan's escaped shadow as figure for self-reflection that has left the person who cannot grow, and on the everyday-haunting register of the relationship that persists in glimpses. The shadow is what Betty sees because the partner himself is not there.