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Irony
Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Part I: Chapter 13
Explanation and Analysis—Snowfall:
In the following example of metaphor from Chapter 13, Mariam recalls yet another proverb about female suffering bestowed upon her by Nana:
[Mariam] remembered Nana saying once that each snowflake was a sigh heaved by an aggrieved woman somewhere in the world. That all the sighs drifted up the sky, gathered into clouds, then broke into tiny pieces that fell silently on the people below. As a reminder of how women like us suffer, she'd said. How quietly we endure all that falls upon us.
Related Themes:
Part III: Chapter 42
Explanation and Analysis—Earthquake:
In Chapter 42, the narrator documents Aziza's time in the orphanage, including the various trials and tribulations Laila endures to visit her daughter regularly. When Laila does get to see Aziza, the young girl regales her mother with tales of all she's been taught by the orphanage director, Zaman, who educates children under the Taliban's nose. Aziza is particularly fascinated by earthquakes. Her fascination emerges later in the form of an indirect metaphor, which Laila uses to characterize her daughter's mental endurance:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Laila watched Aziza wave good-bye and scuff along the wall in the orphanage back lot. She thought of Aziza's stutter, and of what Aziza had said earlier about fractures and powerful collisions deep down and how sometimes all we see on the surface is a slight tremor.
Related Themes:
