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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
Key Examples in Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
Preface
Explanation and Analysis—Veil and Freemasonry:
In the Preface, Johnson alludes to W. E. B. Du Bois's foundational book The Souls of Black Folk as he describes the mission of his own book. He also uses a metaphor to elaborate on what he aims to accomplish:
In these pages it is as though a veil had been drawn aside: the reader is given of view of the inner life of the Negro in America, is initiated into the “freemasonry,” as it were, of the race.
Related Themes:
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Social Organism:
In Chapter 2, the narrator describes the unsettling experience of meeting his father. He uses a metaphor to develop a sense of pathos, demonstrating to the reader how damaging complex social dynamics can be to an individual child:
Unlock with LitCharts A+On the way I could think of nothing but this new father, where he came from, where he had been, why he was here, and why he would not stay. […] notwithstanding my changed relations with most of my schoolmates, I had only a faint knowledge of prejudice and no idea at all how it ramified and affected the entire social organism. I felt, however, that there was something about the whole affair which had to be hid.
Related Themes:
Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Open Doors:
In Chapter 8, the narrator uses a metaphor to emphasize the situational irony involved in his success as a musician:
Unlock with LitCharts A+By mastering ragtime I gained several things; first of all, I gained the title of professor. […] Through it I also gained a friend who was the means by which I escaped from this lower world. And, finally, I secured a wedge which has opened to me more doors and made me a welcome guest than my playing of Beethoven and Chopin could ever have done.
Related Themes:
